Maternity care

Hooray! You gave birth!

A baby!

Your maternity care week starts now. This is the week following the birth of your baby.

So much is happening at once. Feeding your baby, caring for him/her, welcoming friends and family, emotions, physical discomforts: it is all part of becoming a new mum. Luckily, you are not on your own.

Step by step, you will learn to find your feet in this new family dynamic. Everyone is helping you along the way: your maternity nurse, midwife and later on also your health visitor (the “consultatiebureau”).

Maternity care

Maternity care is a typically Dutch phenomenon!

The first week after your baby is born you receive maternity care. The maternity nurse assists the midwife during a home birth. The following week she will take care of mother and child. You receive the same maternity care if you gave birth in hospital. Maternity care has to be arranged in early pregnancy at a maternity care organisation. You receive more information about this during your intake appointment with your midwife.

If you spend the first week or part of the week after delivery at home, you will be visited by your midwife regularly. She will examine you and find out how you and your baby are doing. After this week, care of the baby is transferred to your health visitor (consultatiebureau) in your neighbourhood. During this first week you will be contacted by a nurse to plan an intake appointment.

Diet

Immediately after giving birth the hormones in your body change. This helps your body to start producing breast milk.

In the first few days after birth it is important to breastfeed your baby often. This gets milk production going. Your breasts produce sufficient milk and will adapt to your baby’s intake.

The beautiful thing about breastfeeding is the amount of nutrients and antibodies it contains. The antibodies provide protection against developing specific allergies and illnesses. It also reduces the mother’s chances of getting breast cancer. It contains all the nutrients your baby needs. When you give birth prematurely, the composition of your breast milk is different from when you give birth near your due date.

Every healthy mother is able to breastfeed. Sometimes it takes a little more effort to get it going and a breast pump can help with this.

During pregnancy you choose the way you want to feed your baby.

You and your partner can make the choice between breast milk and formula together. After birth your maternity nurse and midwife will help you with breastfeeding.

See www.borstvoeding.com for more information about breastfeeding.

Visits

In the first seven to ten days after the birth of your baby your midwife will visit you and your partner about four times a week to provide guidance and support. She looks for signs of any physical or mental issues in mother and child. Catching problems early makes them easier to solve. The maternity nurse also plays an important role in this. Any potential problems she spots will be discussed with the midwife. The midwife will then decide what to do.

The most important tasks of the midwife during this time are as follows:

– Supporting the mother in her recovery from childbirth, physically and emotionally.
– Providing assistance during breastfeeding.
– Monitoring the baby’s health. The midwife will not only pay attention to your baby’s physical symptoms but also to his or her behaviour.
If certain complications arise, we may need to consult with a physician. This can be your own doctor but also a gynaecologist or paediatrician.

Maternity care

Maternity care

Diet

Visits

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