I am going to give birth
If you have any concerns, worries or doubts
you can call us day or night at the emergency number
When should I call
if my labor has started?
In any case, we want you to always call immediately, day or night, if:
- you are not yet 37 weeks pregnant and have regular, recurrent, painful hard bellows / contractions, more often than a few times per hour.
- You are less than 37 weeks pregnant and are losing blood or amniotic fluid.
- you have painful contractions that come for at least 1 hour with a frequency of < 5 minutes and last for about 60 seconds.
- you are losing amniotic fluid and the baby was not lying with the head down at the last checkup or if the head had not descended. Therefore, lie down immediately.
- you lose amniotic fluid that is not clear in color, but brown, green or yellow.
- you have more than a few drops of bright red blood loss.
Preferably call during the day, when:
- after 37 weeks your waters break, the baby’s head is down and collapsed, and there is clear amniotic fluid.
- you feel your baby moving less frequently than you are used to.
More information? - you have pain in your upper abdomen, a headache, starry eyes, nausea or a feeling of general malaise.
Where can I give birth?
If your pregnancy is uncomplicated and there are no medical indications, you have the choice of where to give birth. It is important that you and your partner are comfortable at the place of delivery.
1. giving birth at home
- you are signed up with a maternity care agency so that a maternity nurse can come during labor to assist us.
- you have a maternity package in your home (you usually get this from your insurance company in the 8th month of your pregnancy).
- your bed is in an easily accessible place. By this we mean that you can be moved out of the house with a stretcher in case of an emergency (i.e., you don’t have to go up or down narrow and/or winding stairs). When in doubt: ask your midwife!
2. giving birth in a hospital
If you want to give birth in a hospital, without medical indication, we call it outpatient birth. You more or less rent a delivery room from the hospital. Your own midwife will supervise the delivery in the hospital along with a maternity nurse or nurse practitioner.
We attend outpatient deliveries at the following hospitals: Tergooi Hospital Blaricum and all hospitals in Amsterdam.
At the time of your delivery, we will call your preferred hospital and ask if they have space. Since we do not belong to the Amsterdam region, we do not have priority at these hospitals and depend on the availability of a delivery room.
If the desired hospital does not have space at that time, we will work together to find an alternative solution.