What is it like to give birth overseas? How much does it cost? In order to answer such a question, I would like to tell you this time by the author who experienced childbirth in New Zealand.
What to do if you get pregnant?
Once you know that you are pregnant, first go to your clinic. It will teach you how many weeks you are pregnant, confirm your intention to give birth, have a blood test, and find a midwife called a midwife. After that, I had them prescribe a folic acid supplement for 3 months, and that was the end of the day.
How to find the midwife?
How to find a midwife varies from person to person. Like me, you can get a list of midwives from the clinic and call yourself to find one, or you can ask a friend to introduce you to a reliable midwife. The number of pregnant women accepted per midwife is fixed, so if this midwife is good! If so, you should contact us early to make a reservation.
By the way, basically I will not come back to this clinic until I give birth. From here, you will go to the clinic where there is a midwife who will be in charge of you and have a medical examination.
You get ultrasound only twice!!
Contact the midwife and make your first appointment. Generally, you will be asked to come after taking an echo at the first ultrasound. The midwife does not take an echo. You will have to make a reservation with a specialized agency and go to the venue.
And this first ultrasound is a whopping 7th to 10th week of pregnancy. In Japan, as soon as you know that you are pregnant, you will see it by echo. I think the baby is still like beans in the first echo photo. However, in my case, I remember being very surprised that the first echo was already in the shape of a person. At that time, the size of the baby will tell you the expected date of delivery.
Nervous because it’s much less than Japan
In fact, it’s basically okay to have an ultrasound examination only twice, this first time and the next 20 weeks of pregnancy! Of course, if you’re curious, it’s okay to go take a picture, but it’s far less than in Japan, where you take an echo every time you have a medical examination. In my case, the size of the baby was a little small, so I took a total of 4 shots just in case.
Delivery!!
This midwife is a really encouraging ally for pregnant women. She’s the same person who takes care of everything from pregnancy screening to picking up the baby, and she can be contacted 24 hours a day if anything happens. This is also different from Japan.
And when labor pains occur, first contact her midwife and ask for her instructions. In my case, she had a small baby, so she planned to deliver it earlier than planned, so she went straight to the hospital from the beginning.
Friend of my husband came to be with me
By the way, it is okay for up to 3 adults to enter the LDR. In the case of the author, both my husband and my parents are in my own country, and even though it was a planned delivery, it was decided the day before, so my husband could not attend that day, and to three of his friends (of course, a woman! Lol) I was witnessed.
Of course, I told the hospital on the day of the event, but it felt like “please, please.” I had one of my friends cut the umbilical cord. By the way, there is no midwife from the beginning. The hospital will contact you when you see the progress of labor and it becomes “delivery!”.
It might go as you had planned, but not always!!
The midwife asks the midwife about how to give birth, such as natural childbirth, labor analgesia, and underwater delivery, so the hospital will basically proceed with the delivery accordingly. However, it is the birth that you do not know what is happening. The author wanted to have a natural childbirth, but in an instant I changed my mind to the painless delivery because of the effectiveness of the labor-promoting agent. This is also done immediately if you say “Please hit epidural (anesthesia)”.
While resting for about 2 hours after giving birth, the midwife will clean the baby alone, weigh it, and give you vitamin k injections. After that, the shower in the same room will wash your body after giving birth.
When doctor shows up?
So far, the doctor has never appeared, so you may have been wondering. The midwife in charge will take care of all the monthly examinations during pregnancy. The contents of the examination are different from those in Japan, and in New Zealand, the weight, urine, and blood pressure of pregnant women are checked, and the size of the fetal heart sounds and palpation is checked. (Laughs) After that, if you have any concerns, ask a question and decide the next examination date. Is it about 20 minutes?
I think many pregnant women often say, “I have a pain in my pelvic examination!”, But in New Zealand there are no pelvic examinations. Therefore, the doctor does not appear in the examination. One-on-one with a midwife. As I mentioned earlier, ultrasonography goes to another specialized institution, but here again the person in charge is a professionally qualified person, not a doctor.
At the time of childbirth, the midwife in charge will appear at the climax. During that time, the midwife at the hospital will take care of NST and other treatments. If your childbirth goes well, you will rarely meet a doctor in New Zealand. Even the author, who had a planned delivery, met the doctor only when he was called to the hospital where he was informed that the baby was small as a result of the ultrasound examination and was told, “Let’s give birth tomorrow.” (Lol)
Of course, the story is different when it comes to Caesarean section. Obviously, the surgeon will be in charge.
Expense and nationality
It’s roughly like this from the discovery of pregnancy to childbirth. In my case, I think it was a very unique birth, with a friend in attendance instead of my husband. And it’s the money you care about. How much does it cost?
The cost of childbirth is basically free! is. Only ultrasound and folic acid supplements will be charged.
In my case…
The price of ultrasound examination varies depending on the clinic, but when I went there, it was about $ 25 (a little less than 2000 yen) at a time, and the folic acid supplement was also about $ 5 (about 400 yen), so the total is about about. It’s 8400 yen. It doesn’t cost money to have a midwife’s monthly checkup, labor analgesia, natural childbirth, cesarean section, or an emergency delivery at midnight. However, this applies not only to New Zealanders, but also to foreigners who have lived in New Zealand for more than 2 years and who have permanent residency.
For example, when it comes to giving birth during a working holiday, it costs a lot of money because all the tests are paid in full.
What about baby’s nationality?
Since New Zealand is a jus soli country, children born in New Zealand are inevitably of New Zealand nationality, regardless of their parents’ nationality or gender. In my case, my husband is Filipino and I am Japanese, so my child currently has three nationalities: New Zealand, the Philippines, and Japan. Simply put, you can have a passport for three countries.
However, multiple nationalities are not allowed in Japan, and you must decide which nationality you will have by the age of 22. On the other hand, since it is recognized in the Philippines and New Zealand, my husband owns a total of two passports, one for the Philippines and one for New Zealand.
There are many countries where you can go to Japan without a visa, and it is the 5th most effective in the world (New Zealand is 7th, Philippines is 66th), so if your child likes traveling or is interested in the world in the future, the nationality is Japan. I’m thinking of having you choose.
Want to have babies in New Zealand next time, too!
It took a lot of courage to decide to experience my first childbirth in New Zealand. However, I think now that the examinations are the minimum necessary and the weight management is not particularly strict, so I was able to spend the time until childbirth with a very laid back feeling. The midwife, the echo examination clinic, and the hospital cooperated properly, and I didn’t have to worry. If I have another baby, I think I will give birth in New Zealand. This time, I introduced an example of overseas childbirth based on my experience.
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