Maternity benefits not covered

I have been a member with Discovery for my entire adult life. Following my recent pregnancy, however, my family will regrettably be moving to another service provider. I have been left deeply disappointed by the way my case has been handled.

I received a positive pregnancy test in June 2025 and I went to the obstetrician to confirm the pregnancy on a few days later. I told the doctor that I was traveling overseas shortly after and she said that she needed to confirm that it was not an ectopic pregnancy before I went travelling.

I left for overseas and at this point I had only been pregnant for 13 days and the probability of miscarriage was high, so I did not register the pregnancy with Discovery.

While I was travelling I tried to register the pregnancy but I could not receive the OTP via SMS while out of the country. I tried to do so on my laptop and via the app. Failing that I tried to reach out to Discovery and was only given the option to talk to a bot.

I returned in my 12th week pregnancy and was given all standard 12 week blood tests with Lancet - on the same day of arriving home to South Africa. These tests were also not covered by discovery.

On the same day as I returned home I registered the pregnancy on Discovery.

DISCOVERY DID NOT COVER ANY OF MY APPOINTMENTS OR TESTS PRIOR TO ACTIVATING MATERNITY COVER ON ARRIVAL BACK IN SA.

The claims made prior to registering the pregnancy should be covered too, as I was pregnant at the time and had all the evidence to prove it.

I pay thousands of Rands every month for my whole family, and being a healthy family we go for months and months without claiming from Discovery. I find it hard to believe that a pregnancy is only covered from the day that the pregnancy is registered when it is clear from my doctors records that I have been pregnant since June!