Pregnancy Checklist

When you are pregnant a lot is happening around you. There are many things to arrange before the baby comes. What you must arrange depends on your personal situation, but we are happy to give you some general advice.

After 6 weeks of pregnancy

At 11 weeks

Between 12 and 16 weeks

  • Do you want care for your child after the birth? If so, visit some day-care centres and register your child in one.
  • Inform your family doctor and your pharmacist that you are pregnant. This will prevent being prescribed the wrong medication (in an emergency situation), which could be dangerous for the baby.

Between 12 en 22 weeks

  • Register for a maternity nurse (Kraamzorg)
  • Decide whether you want to have a 20 weeks ultrasound scan (the anomaly scan). If you do, make an appointment at the Ultrasound Center.
  • After 22 weeks, make an appointment at the consultation office for the whooping cough vaccination . It protects your baby against whooping cough immediately after birth.
  • Check your legal rights and duties as a parent! It is important to find out what you need to do to properly arrange the legal affairs. You often have to arrange things during pregnancy, and this can take months! So don't put this off! Check: www.government.nl 
    For example:
    If you are not married, you must acknowledge the baby at the district office before the birth. 
    - Are you the father and do you have Dutch nationality when your child is born, and the mother not? Then your child will only acquire Dutch nationality if: you are married or have a registered partnership with the non-Dutch mother of the child, or you acknowledged the child before birth.
    - Separate rules apply in the Netherlands for children born into relationships between two women or two men.   

Around 24 weeks

  • Join a pregnancy gym or yoga class.
  • Parents of a newborn child must observe a number of rules in the Netherlands. Read more about the Family law, before the birth.
  • Order (if you want to) things for the baby’s room and a pram in good time. An order can take up to 10 weeks!

Around 27 weeks

  • Read the leaflet ‘feeling your baby move’. In this folder you will get information about the normal movements of your baby in pregnancy and what to do if your baby moves less or different.

After 33 weeks

  • Think about birth announcement cards
  • Visit our free Seminar on delivery
  • Write a birthplan. This is a document you can make with your partner and caregiver that describes how you would like the delivery of your child to be.
  • Read or watch the information about the Heel prick (a blood test) & hearing test on the baby in the first week after birth.

At 37 weeks

  • Order blocks via Home Care to raise the bed. At the time of birth the blocks should be in place under the bed. Also if you are going to give birth in a hospital.
  • Have you received the maternity package? You will often receive this automatically via your insurance. Otherwise you can buy it at a our practice, drugstore, pharmacy or home care shop.

After 40 weeks

After the birth of your baby

Nationality

If one or both parents has a foreign nationality, there may be extensive formalities. Ask for this at your own embassy or consulate. Do this early in the pregnancy because for some countries the procedure can be very long.