Rachel Evans says they went out of their way to find a travel insurer that covered pregnancy up to the 27th week and paid extra for pregnancy coverage, which included "unexpected events associated with pregnancy."

Australian couple John Kan and Rachel Evans have been hit with hefty medical bills after their daughter Piper Kan was born prematurely in B.C. (Rachel Evans)Australian couple John Kan and Rachel Evans have been hit with hefty medical bills after their daughter Piper Kan was born prematurely in B.C. (Rachel Evans)

She says a telephone operator assured them the coverage included births, but midway through their stay in Vancouver, they were shocked to learn that wasn't the case.

"It's one of those things that you read about happening to somebody else and when it happens to you, it doesn't seem that it could possibly be real, but you're there, and on another level, you know that it's real," she said.

"When we had various dealings with them afterwards, it was quite clear in the policy. I guess we hadn't read it closely because our verbal understanding was that we were covered."