Tricare benefits You may not have known about

Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy - YES! During pregnancy! Proven to strengthen & align the muscles/ligaments around your pelvic floor, hips, spine, etc both pre and postpartum!

My flight doctor put in the referral for me at about 8 weeks. You may have to report an issue which would warrant the care (example, I told my flight doc that in my previous pregnancy, I had a lot of right hip and round ligament pain — luckily for me, his wife experienced similar challenges and through his family’s own research, discovered that PT during pregnancy can help to prevent some of these nagging issues).

Bottom line: be prepared to tell your PCM that you have an underlying issue (leakage, pain with sex, etc) which may warrant the care and ask for the referral.

  • Not all locations will have a Pelvic Floor certified PT, so you may have to call around and ask.

  • My initial referral sent me to a PT not certified in Pelvic Floor therapy. The clinic’s scheduler claimed that their therapist could do it, but she was incorrect. I ultimately called my OB and asked for a recommendation and I was able to call Tricare to switch my referral over to the recommended therapist. I’ve been satisfied with the care during pregnancy and plan to continue postpartum.

  • My experience: the therapy has focused on strength training and some soft tissue massage around my hips, low back, coccyx, and some lower belly. This pregnancy, I’ve had much less back pain than my last pregnancy and I attribute it to this PT combined with targeted resistance band/light-medium weight strength training and yoga.

  • Mamas! Share your experiences with pelvic floor PT during pregnancy in the comments section or email momgouge@gmail.com

Childbirth & Breastfeeding Support Demonstration (CBSD), active January 1, 2022 - December 31, 2026

Take advantage while you can! https://www.tricare.mil/Plans/SpecialPrograms/CBSD

Doula Services

  • Tricare covers up to six hours of visits which can be split up into 15 minute increments

  • Unlimited support during birth

  • Breastfeeding support: six sessions per birth event

  • Lactation consultant: as part of doula services or separately (unsure if you could receive both… say, your doula is also a lactation consultant and as part of their services they offer this support AND you find an additional Tricare covered lactation consultant/counselor… worth asking).

  • The catch: not all locations will have doulas available who take Tricare. Just started authorization overseas this year. Must be planning to deliver outside an MTF.

  • My experience: I’m in a region which just recently switched from Tricare East to Tricare West and we are presently navigating how and what will be covered. Initially, my contract with their service said Tricare would cover ~$900 and I would have to pay the difference of $600 for a total of a $1500 service. My referral management office is currently attempting to help the business I used complete their certification transition from Tricare East to West (it’s been a huge pain).

  • More from Tricare’s website: https://newsroom.tricare.mil/News/TRICARE-News/Article/3923905/2025-changes-to-the-tricare-childbirth-and-breastfeeding-support-demonstration

  • Search for a network (or non-network) provider through Humana’s website: https://www.humanamilitary.com/beneficiary/resources/cbsd

Lactation Consultation/Counseling

  • Combined or separate from doula services

  • Details on what qualifies/what’s covered: https://www.tricare.mil/CoveredServices/IsItCovered/BreastfeedingCounseling

  • Search for a network (or non-network) provider through Humana’s website: https://www.humanamilitary.com/beneficiary/resources/cbsd

  • Note my experience: I got a referral from my PCM. He put in “lactation counseling,” which was denied. Tricare came back and approved “services” but the provider they set me up with was not currently accepting Tricare patients because they “haven’t been paid since January,” which is likely an issue with switching from Tricare East to West. So instead, I went through the company Every Ounce to request Lactation Consultant services which was approved within 24 hours and I had a virtual appointment with SimpliFed (another 3rd party) 48 hours later. I had a wonderful experience with my IBCLC/RN through SimpliFed — she spent an hour watching me feed my LO and helped us address spit up issues and thrush. We are already showing marked improvement since the appointment and it’s only been 24 hours!

  • Most, if not all, the listed in-network lactation consultants are listed as providing virtual services. I did not see any locally in my area (Little Rock)

Tricare Contracted Companies/Suppliers (I found these suppliers easier to work with than filing a claim directly with Tricare… I attempted both)

  • Breast pumps, compression socks, belly bands, milk storage bags, sometimes a pump bag

  • Some companies/suppliers bundle in pregnancy, breastfeeding, pumping, and other new motherhood content classes (like Aeroflow, which I used and found helpful!).

    • Not all companies cover the same breast pumps. I did some research as to which companies seem to be the most Tricare friendly: Homefront Pumps, 1Natural Way, Every Ounce, Aeroflow, The Breastfeeding Shop, and Baby Pavillion are some great options to check out. I personally had a great experience with Every Ounce (they cover the Eufy S1 Pro, which seems to be the new hotness of wearable pumps! They also cover the Pumpables Genie Advanced, which I use now and love, because it’s so portable but also nearly as powerful as my Spectra S1) and they had fantastic customer service when I ran into some issues with my profile’s transition from Tricare East to West (somehow I was showing as having other insurance — Medicaid parts A & B, which was super weird since I’m still active duty… I’m in the process of fixing that now). I also liked Aeroflow for their new parent classes (Pumping 101 and Sleep were both valuable classes for me, even as a second time mom!)

Previous
Previous

i see two lines…