'How much am I willing to change my lifestyle?'—and 4 other money questions to ask yourself before having kids

Carolyn McClanahan started her career as a physician. During this time she delivered more than 150 babies and coached dozens of women through the pregnancy process.

Now, she is a certified financial planner and founder of financial planning firm Life Planning Partners. 

Her mix of expertise in money and health give her unique insight into the financial stressors that come with having a baby. 

Here are five questions she says every person should ask themselves before deciding to have children.

The average cost of a vaginal birth in a hospital without health insurance is $13,024, according to data from ValuePenguin. With health insurance, having a baby in a hospital could cost up to $8,224, depending on what type of insurance you have.

"Make sure you understand your insurance and how much you'll be expected to pay," she says. "Make sure the hospital and OB are in your network." 

You could save a lot of money by getting pregnant toward the end of the year, McClanahan says. 

"If you get pregnant in October, November, or December, then you don't have to have your first doctor visit until the next year," she says. "Then, ideally, you have the baby within that year. So you only have one year of deductibles related to the baby." 

If you get pregnant in the spring, though, you'll have to meet the deductible for that year and the next year. 

Look into how how much paid time off your company offers and think about how likely it is that you will return to work after having your baby. 

"There are a number of people who say they are going to go back to work, but after having the baby they have a hard time going back," McClanahan says. 

If you have a partner, walk through what your budget would look like if you didn't return to work or went back part-time instead of full-time.

If you aren't satisfied with the quality of schools in your neighborhood, you'll need to look into private school or moving to a different neighborhood where the public schools are up to your standards. 

While this decision might seem like a lifetime away, McClanahan warns that these are huge costs and you'll want to have at least a rough idea of how you'll manage them before having a child. 

It might sound obvious, but it's worth contemplating the concrete changes you'll have to make to your everyday life. Going out to eat, traveling, attending sporting events will all look very different with a child in tow. 

"If you love to travel, now you'll have to bring extra people along and it's a lot of money," McClanahan says. 

Give some thought to how much money and time you spend pursuing hobbies and how that will change once you have a new set of expenses. 

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