At home, or in the hospital?
The Netherlands is one of the only countries where women can give birth at home.
Research has shown that home births are just as safe as hospital births.
In the comfort of your own home you are relaxed, you feel safe and you can decide what to do. You can use your own toilet, shower, bath and bed.
We will come to you when you go into labour. We will check you during your contractions, when your waters break or at other signs of labour.
When you are in the later stages of dilation, we will stay with you and we’ll call the maternity nurse who will also assist during labour.
After your baby is born, we will stay with you for a few hours to check on the baby, help you feed the baby, provide stitches (if necessary) and to supervise the overall situation.
You can choose to give birth in hospital. Giving birth in hospital without any specific medical reason is called “polyclinic” birth in Dutch. This means you will be at home during the first part of labour and will go to the hospital together with the midwife on call when you’re having contractions. We will examine you at home first.
If the delivery went well, you can go home a few hours later to receive your maternity care there.
When you opt for a polyclinic birth, please check the costs with your health insurer.
In case a complication arises during pregnancy or childbirth, you need to go to hospital to give birth. This means the gynaecologist will take over. He or she will be responsible for your pregnancy and delivery, and will direct medical assistants and clinical obstetricians to provide the best care for you.
If you have given birth under the care of a gynaecologist, we will visit you the day after you’ve been discharged from hospital to check on you and your newborn baby.