Information about the delivery
In The Netherlands you can choose where you would like to deliver your child;
at home or in a hospital. During either occasion we will guide you. This becomes
obsolete when you have a medical indication to deliver at a hospital (eg.
when the unborn baby has defecated in the womb ).
It is possible that you have strong ideas about how and where you want to deliver. This will be discussed when you are 34 weeks far in your pregnancy. You can also make a birth plan, and we talk about it during the mentioned talk when you are 34 weeks far.
The choice for a location only has to be made when labour has started. Only then
you will know where you would feel best. Making reservations for a hospital bed
is not possible; both you and us do not know when you will be going into labour.
For more information about the Dutch system of obstetrics and your delivery we advise you to read this page.
Things to be arranged before your delivery (both for home- and hospital birth):
• Please make sure your doorbel is functioning and that there’s
a clear nameplate at your front door.
•
The height of your bed needs to be 70-90 cm, also in
the case of a hospital birth or when you would like to give birth on a birthing
stool! To be able to achieve this, you can phone our practice (020-4700067)
to borrow bedraisers. These will be delivered to your home along
with a bedpan. When it is impossible to raise your bed with bedraisers (or
for instance beercrates) or you happen to have a waterbed, make sure you organize
a raised (single) bed.
•
Please have a bag with requisites for the baby and yourself ready, in case
we need to go to the hospital. Do not forget to put your insurance card and
photocamera in there as well.
•
Make sure you have a “kraampakket” at home. If your insurance company
doesn’t provide you with one, you can buy the medical things (gauzes,
umbilical cord clip etc.) at the pharmacist and most of the other things at
the HEMA of PRENATAL (see list of requirements).
When should you call us? 06- 46 08 19 60
You call us immediately (day and night) with:
•
Contractions and/or ruptured membranes/loss of water before 37 weeks.
•
Ruptured membranes when the head of the baby is not engaged. We will tell you
at your prenatal check-ups whether it is or not.
•
Ruptured membranes with loss of unclear water (i.e. brown or green).
•
Loss of a lot of blood (more than one sanitary pad within half an hour). A
little blood or slimy discharge is normal, in that case you don’t need
to call us. The delivery may still be days away.
•
In case it’s your first delivery you call us when you’ve been having
contractions every 4-5 minutes that last one minute for the duration of 2 hours
(so: 1 minute contraction, 3-4 minute break).
•
In case it’s your second or succeeding delivery you call us when you’ve
been having strong contractions every 5 minutes for the duration of one hour.
You call us during the day (from 10.00-22.00) with:
•
Ruptured membranes and loss of clear water when the head of your baby is engaged.
It may contain little white flakes, some blood or slime. This is normal. Please
try (certainly when your not sure) to catch some of it in a glass and save
your underwear/pads for us to have a look at. From that moment onwards, because
of an increased risk of infection, you are not allowed to have intercourse,
swim or take a bath.
The choice of place does not have to be made beforehand; it is best to choose
where you would like to deliver when the contractions have started. Only then
will you know where you feel most comfortable. It is not possible to make a
reservation for a room in the hospital: you and we do not know when you are
going to give birth.
Try, at all times, to call us yourselves; we can tell more from hearing your voice than just the factually given information. We will tell you when we will visit you. Also in case you chose to deliver in the hospital we will visit you at home first. You will be going to the hospital (with your own car/taxi) when you are about 5cm dilated.
We cooperate with the Kweekschool voor Vroedvrouwen (School for Midwives) and the medical faculty of the University of Amsterdam. This means that sometimes there will be students with us during practice hours (at the prenatal check-ups) or joining us when we are on call. We will always supervise them when they are performing medical tasks. This way we contribute to the training of our future colleagues. If you object to having a student there, please do let us know.
We hope you will have a pleasant pregnancy and a good delivery!