I am doing my research on hiring a kraamzorg. A kraamzorg is a trained maternity nurse.
Their role is like a confinement lady in our culture. But instead of one month, she comes for only 8 days, each day for about 5 hours. She will help check the mother's health, and baby health, keep track of all these statistics and report to the midwife. She also helps to take care of older children (if you have one), cook meals, serve visiting guests, help you out with laundry and most importantly, the hygiene level around the house. She also teaches you basic baby care like how to handle newborn, how to bath them, how to breastfeed them etc... (Definitely a great help for first timer like me!)
Basically, she is there so that the mother can rest as much as possible and have time to bond with her baby. Plus, it's covered by insurance. This is one of the best features that you can get when you deliver in the Netherlands. I know we have confinement lady service in KL, but I have yet hear that the payment is covered by insurance.
In fact, Dutch puts higher priority in post-natal care than pre-natal care. From what I read, the pre-natal care conducted by midwives are very simple. They stay with the idea that everything is normal, pregnancy is normal. They don't do unnecessary checks or tests. What I heard is, they normally measure your weight and check the baby, and this won't take more than 15minutes. No blood test, or urine test. No ultrasound scan after week 20th, unless it's necessary (normally when they suspect baby breech, or baby too small), or the mother feels very uncomfortable or stressed because can't feel the baby etc... so nothing to shout about, I would say.
But, the post-natal care is excellent. Mothers basically do not need to leave the house for any checkups after giving birth. All the helps and cares come to you, right at home. You might think that it is cruel to send a mother and newborn back hours after delivery in the hospital, but Dutch believes that you recover the best while you're at home. Of course if you did a c-sect, they will keep you in the hospital. Plus, insurance doesn't cover hospital stay after birth. Unlike in KL, you still get to stay in the hospital for 2-3 days after birth.
So, I'm still researching on which agency to book from because one: I need an English-speaking nurse; two: non-smoker; three: support breastfeeding.
Of course I also hear horror stories about kraamzorg being lazy, watch TV, didn't do the necessary check up for the mother and baby etc... well... there are confinement ladies who are like this back home isn't it?
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