- 085 40 19 095 (register + non-urgent questions)
- 06 53 65 91 91 (emergency, delivery)
Location for the birth
At home, birthplace or hospital?
Where you give birth has a significant impact on your birthing experience. We would like to discuss the various birthing location options with you so that you can make an informed decision. If your delivery is normal and you have not had a medical delivery in the past or have a medical reason for a hospital delivery, you decide where you want to give birth. It is important to choose an environment where you feel comfortable, so that you can relax as much as possible. Relaxation is important to make the delivery go smoothly.
Place of Delivery Options
Home birth
With a normal pregnancy and delivery, it is just as safe to give birth at home as in the hospital. The advantage of a home birth is that you can relax best at home, which is conducive to the delivery. Also, you do not have to go somewhere else in the car during your contractions. When you give birth at home, we will guide you through the delivery. We would like to emphasize that we have all the necessary medical equipment and expertise available to safely support a home birth. We are also assisted by a maternity nurse during childbirth, whoafter the delivery, clean up all the stuff that was used. So you don't have any extra work or mess from a delivery at home.
During labor, a reason may arise to still go to the hospital. In most cases, this does not have to be urgent and we will go to the hospital with our own transport. If there is an emergency, the transport will be by ambulance and you will be taken to the nearest hospital. Fortunately, this is only very rarely necessary.
Outpatient delivery: Isala hospital Zwolle
If you would rather not have a home birth and would rather give birth in the hospital, but there is no medical reason for this, we call this an outpatient birth. An outpatient birth is a birth that takes place in the hospital, but with us as your midwife who will supervise the birth. An outpatient birth is possible in the Isala hospital in Zwolle with whom we have a good working relationship.
Before you go to the Isala hospital for an outpatient delivery, you always call us first. We will first visit you at home and in consultation with you we will determine the time of departure to the hospital. If you would like to give birth as an outpatient at the Isala hospital, we will supervise your delivery. The advantage of an outpatient delivery at the Isala hospital in Zwolle is that you can stay in the same room if your delivery unexpectedly becomes medical (for example because the delivery is going differently or if you have to pain relief If the delivery becomes medical, only a midwife from the Isala hospital will come to supervise your delivery, but you do not have to move rooms. In the Isala hospital guided tours are given regularly. This tour gives you the opportunity to get a taste of the atmosphere, so that you can make a conscious choice about the place where you want to give birth. We definitely recommend that you visit this tour. Would you like to take a look at the Isala hospital? Then watch the video below:
Harderwijk Birth Center
Another option to avoid giving birth at home is to give birth in the birth center in Harderwijk. This birth house is located on the ground floor of the building of the St. Jansdal hospital. Please note: the birth centre is not a hospital department, so your delivery will be supervised by us as your midwife together with a maternity nurse from the birth centre. After the delivery you can shower and, if everything goes well with both you and the baby, go home, where your own maternity nurse will give you your first advice. If a medical indication arises during labor, you will be transferred from the maternity care home to the delivery rooms of the St. Jansdal hospital, which are one floor higher. Please note: there is a chance that the St Jansdal hospital has no room and you will have to be transferred to another hospital.
Watch the video below for an impression of the atmosphere of the Birth Center in Harderwijk:
Difference between outpatient delivery Isala or delivery in the Harderwijk birth center
With all these options, you're probably wondering what the differences are between giving birth in Isala or the birth center in Harderwijk. That's why we've listed the differences for you:
- If you give birth in an outpatient clinic at Isala and your delivery is medical, you do not have to move. You keep the same room. This is because an outpatient delivery always takes place in a room of the hospital.
- If you give birth in the birth centre in Harderwijk and your birth is medical, there may not be a place available in St Jansdal, which means you will have to move to another hospital. This is because the birth centre is not part of St Jansdal Hospital, even though it is located in the same building.
- In Isala you can give birth in a bath. There are several inflatable birthing pools, which reduces the chance of a bath birth is the largest compared to the birth center.
- The birth center has one pool. There is a chance that the pool is occupied and you will not be able to use it.
Normally you go home 2 to 3 hours after the birth of your baby. In the maternity care home in Harderwijk it is not possible to stay a little longer if you would like that. Only if it is medically necessary, it can be decided that you can stay longer, but this does not happen as standard.
The hospital and maternity care home charge a rate of approximately €450 for the rental of the delivery room without medical indication. Whether your health insurer will reimburse these costs depends on your policy.
Bath birth
At the Isala hospital you have the option to give birth in a bath during an outpatient delivery (so without medical reason). There are several inflatable birthing baths. If you would like to give birth in a bath, you can let us know. We will then inform Isala at your home that a bath needs to be set up. When you arrive at the Isala hospital, you only have to pay for the cover of €90. The bath will be ready for you as soon as you arrive at the hospital.
There is a permanent bath in the birthing centre in Harderwijk. Because there is one bath that is used for multiple rooms, we have to ask at home whether the birthing bath is available. If the birthing bath is already occupied by someone else, you cannot use the birthing bath. You can of course still choose to give birth in the Isala hospital, where a bath is available.
Medical indication for hospital delivery without hospital staff
Sometimes it is necessary to decide during pregnancy that it is safer to give birth in hospital. In a number of situations we have good agreements with the hospital where we can still supervise your delivery, for example if you had too much blood loss during a previous delivery, if the placenta was not born spontaneously during the previous delivery or if certain medications are used. In such cases there is a medical indication to give birth in hospital, but not for medical staff. We call this a delivery with indication of place.
Medical indication for hospital delivery with hospital staff
If you are under the supervision of a gynaecologist, you automatically have a medical indication and you always give birth in the hospital. You can already have a medical indication before the birth, but it can also arise during the birth. In the case of a medical indication, the gynaecologist is responsible for the birth. Because the responsibility in this case lies with the hospital and two 'captains on one ship' causes confusion, the agreement is that we will no longer provide guidance and that the hospital staff will take over. Of course, we will come to your home as soon as possible after the baby is born and you are allowed to go home!
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