Pregnant in the Netherlands: what to do, week by week
Having a baby in the Netherlands involves 25 admin steps, spread from about week 5 of the pregnancy to a year after the birth. It starts with "Register with a midwife practice (verloskundige)" and ends with "Get the baby their own passport or ID card". Checked 23 September 2026.
Which ones apply to you depends on 4 questions about your situation, and each one below is checked against an official source and dated.
First trimester, to week 13
- Register with a midwife practice (verloskundige) usually between week 5 and week 8 of the pregnancy
In the Netherlands a midwife, not a GP or a hospital, leads normal pregnancy care.
- Extra scans you pay for yourself (pretecho) usually between week 7 and week 30 of the pregnancy
Dutch care gives you 3 ultrasounds as standard — the dating scan, the 13-week scan and the 20-week scan — which is fewer than many countries offer.
- Decide about the NIPT and the 13-week scan usually between week 9 and week 14 of the pregnancy
You are offered screening for chromosomal conditions (the NIPT blood test) and a 13-week scan that looks for physical conditions.
- The dating scan (termijnecho) usually between week 10 and week 14 of the pregnancy
An ultrasound at around week 10 that measures the baby and fixes how far along you are.
- Arrange maternity care at home (kraamzorg) usually between week 12 and week 16 of the pregnancy
For the first days after the birth a maternity nurse (kraamverzorgende) comes to your home to look after you and the baby, check on you both, and help with feeding.
- Decide where you want to give birth usually between week 12 and week 20 of the pregnancy
If your pregnancy is healthy you choose: at home, in a birth centre (geboortecentrum), or in hospital with your own midwife.
Second trimester, weeks 14 to 27
- The 20-week scan (20 wekenecho) usually between week 18 and week 21 of the pregnancy
A detailed ultrasound that checks how the baby is developing physically.
- Acknowledge the baby before the birth (erkenning) usually between week 20 and week 34 of the pregnancy · people who are not married or in a registered partnership and have a partner going through it with them
If you are not married and not in a registered partnership, the mother's partner is not automatically the baby's legal parent.
- Choose the baby's surname (naamskeuze) usually between week 20 and week 36 of the pregnancy
You can record the surname before the birth at the municipality, or at the birth registration.
- The whooping-cough vaccination in pregnancy (22-wekenprik) usually between week 22 and week 28 of the pregnancy
From week 22 you are offered a whooping-cough vaccination, given by youth health care (JGZ) at the consultatiebureau.
- Tell your employer when your maternity leave starts usually between week 26 and week 33 of the pregnancy · people who are employed (in loondienst)
Employees get at least 16 weeks of paid leave in total: pregnancy leave (zwangerschapsverlof) starting between 6 and 4 weeks before your due date, then maternity leave (bevallingsverlof) after the birth.
Third trimester, week 28 to the birth
- Claim maternity pay as a self-employed parent (ZEZ) usually between week 30 and week 34 of the pregnancy · people who are self-employed (zzp)
ZEZ (Zelfstandige en Zwanger) is maternity pay for self-employed parents in the Netherlands: at least 16 weeks around the birth, 20 weeks for twins.
- Get an approved car seat before you need it usually between week 32 and week 36 of the pregnancy
Any child under 1.35 metres must travel in an approved car seat, in the front and the back, in your car and anyone else's.
- Pack a bag, and write down what you want usually between week 36 and week 38 of the pregnancy
Paperbump's advice, not the checklist's: from about week 37 it is worth having a bag ready, wherever you plan to give birth, because the day itself rarely gives notice.
After the birth
- Register the birth at the municipality (geboorteaangifte) within 3 days of the birth
You must register the birth with the municipality where the baby was born, within 3 days.
- Partner's birth leave (geboorteverlof) within 4 weeks of the birth · people who have a partner going through it with them
A partner in employment gets 1 working week of paid birth leave, taken in the first 4 weeks after the birth, paid in full by the employer.
- Partner's extra birth leave (aanvullend geboorteverlof) within 6 months of the birth · people who have a partner going through it with them
After that first week, a partner can take up to 5 more weeks in the first 6 months after the birth, in one block or spread out.
- Paid parental leave (betaald ouderschapsverlof) within 1 year of the birth · people who are employed (in loondienst)
Each working parent can take up to 9 working weeks of parental leave paid at 70% of their daily wage by UWV, up to a maximum daily wage, as long as the weeks are taken in the baby's first year.
- Add the baby to your health insurance within 4 months of the birth
Your baby is not insured automatically: you have to register them.
- Claim childcare benefit (kinderopvangtoeslag) within 6 months of the birth
If your baby goes to registered childcare, the government pays back part of the cost.
- Sort out the baby's nationality and papers with your own country within 4 months of the birth · people who moved to the Netherlands from another country
Being born in the Netherlands does not by itself make your baby Dutch.
- Heel prick and hearing test (hielprik en gehoortest) between 1 day and 7 days after the birth
In the first week a health worker comes to your home to take a few drops of blood from the baby's heel and to test their hearing; the hearing test is sometimes done at the consultatiebureau instead.
- The child health clinic (consultatiebureau) between 10 days and 9 weeks after the birth
The consultatiebureau is the free child health clinic, and you are invited to it rather than having to find it: appointments come to you through the first years, to check growth and development and to answer whatever you want to ask.
- Claim child benefit (kinderbijslag) between 2 weeks and 6 weeks after the birth
The municipality tells the SVB about the birth, and about 2 to 4 weeks later the SVB writes to you at the address where the baby is registered, inviting you to claim.
- Get the baby their own passport or ID card between 2 weeks and 1 year after the birth · people who have always lived in the Netherlands
If your baby is Dutch, they cannot travel on a parent's passport: they need their own document, applied for at your municipality with the baby present.
Get these dated from your own due date — free, nothing is sent to us