The Dutch Health Care System and other things gone wrong …
In Belgium, almost all women deliver their babies in the hospital. When they’re done, they can hang around for a few days and then go home. In general, most women will stay there for one week, if memory serves me right. Some women choose to deliver at home, though.
In the Netherlands, you are encouraged to deliver at home. You can go to the hospital to deliver but it’s a touch and go thing. Go in, drop the baby, hold the baby and while you’re still recovering from all the huffing and the puffing, you’re back out on the street. As a Belgian, I find this … completely ridiculous. Here’s a woman holding the most tender thing ever in her arms and she’s put back on the street. If the woman delivers easily, you’re back home in a few hours. Not even an overnight stay.
The woman who advises us on the pregnancy told us this was normal in the Netherlands. When I interjected that most people actually deliver in a Hospital in Belgium (and I think most civilised countries in Western Europe), she argued that at least the Dutch have the choice to deliver at home. I didn’t continue from there on … There’s a lot of things like that in the Netherlands. People are being duped and things are badly organised but the Dutch love it. I’ve learned to live with it and I seriously hope our child is not going to catch anything bad in the first few weeks because apart from a sort of midwife that comes around every now and then to check if your baby is allright, Anne’s left on her own. I’m soooo saving up my holidays so I can hopefully take some 6 weeks off to care for her and the baby. I MAN!
July 17th, 2007 at 18:41:34
It’s kind of a mixed bag here in the States. It’s more accepted and common to give birth in a hospital, however, it’s also pretty popular to stay at home and get a midwife to deliver your baby too. Personally, I think that has more risks associated with it. Indeed, in my case, I was in labor for just shy of 24 hours, and ended up need a C-section to give birth, something that could not have happened had I tried to deliver at home.
Because I had surgery, I HAD to stay in the hospital for 5 days, which sucked. Technically, my son was released a day before I was, but my staples and stuff were not sitting right, and they made me stay to watch them. To this day, my scar is weird and lopesided.
I hope Anne doesn’t have to get a C-Section! They are not fun! D: