Being pregnant and giving birth in Belgium

Hi
I live in Belgium as a Dutch person too and I'm now 11 weeks pregnant.

Which insurance are you with?
Otherwise, just check on your insurance website how it works.

I've been going to a gynecologist at the hospital since week 5.
I'm really happy with that.

My sister also gave birth in Belgium.
You can decide for yourself whether you want postnatal care.
If you don't want it, you'll stay a bit longer in the hospital.

Are you still working in the Netherlands?
Anyway, also apply for a Belgian insurance.
If you work in the Netherlands, you should keep your Dutch insurance.
If you work in Belgium, you can cancel the Dutch one.
Ask about it because it's important.

Dear miepie,

I’m in a reversed situation: I live in the Netherlands but I’m Belgian and wanted to give birth in Belgium. Insurance-wise this wasn’t possible, so I had to pay everything myself. So now, after 20 weeks, I’ve switched to a midwife. In the Netherlands, I wasn’t getting those check-ups reimbursed either; now they’re more manageable, but the nuchal translucency scan and blood tests together cost 190 euros! Giving birth with a Dutch insurance could end up being very expensive though—think thousands of euros! But there’s one catch... If you’re in Belgium at the time of birth, it’s considered an emergency, and your doctor will call your insurance to confirm this, which means you can give birth in Belgium and it will be covered.

It would be best if you had Belgian insurance, and if you also add hospitalization coverage, you’d pay absolutely nothing! I don’t know if you can still get this kind of insurance while you’re pregnant... If you live in Belgium and are registered there, I’d still recommend doing it. It costs practically nothing compared to Dutch insurance, maybe a tenth of the price!

I’m really curious! I’d just go to a Belgian mutual fund and ask around. I can only recommend giving birth in Belgium... No hassle with postpartum packages, postnatal care, and all the things you have to arrange. You just go to the hospital where you’ll stay for 5 days afterward, and you’ll be well taken care of! I’m already jealous!

Good luck!

We're with ZorgVergelijk and we think it's perfect.
And yeah, you pay almost nothing for insurance here.

It's pretty obvious
Does your boyfriend/husband also live in Belgium?
Because it makes sense for him to get Belgian insurance too.

Hi everyone!

Before I start digging around and reading everyone's experiences (there are quite a few different ones, right?), I had a few questions I hope you can maybe give me some more clarity on my upcoming situation.

Here's the deal:

My partner, our two kids, and I want to emigrate from the Netherlands to Belgium.
We've both been deregistered from the Netherlands for quite a while now.
Tomorrow I have an appointment at the consulate in Brussels to register myself and the kids in Belgium, and we're already looking for a house.
I'm 18+ weeks pregnant and haven't had Dutch health insurance for a long time either; we pay everything out of pocket—hospital visits, midwife care at the moment, GP, etc.

Now I'd really like to know if any of you know what I need to arrange here, how it works, or if I'm even eligible for Belgian health insurance or if there's a waiting period, and how my pregnancy is handled.
Well, I obviously know what to do with my pregnancy since it's my third child, but I don't know how to arrange it here in Belgium.
And since I'm no longer registered in the Netherlands, I'm not receiving any allowances, child benefit, child-budget allowance, etc. anymore.
Do I immediately have rights to those things here, or is there a waiting period?

Our situation might seem a bit chaotic, and since I'm pregnant, you might be thinking "oh my, you're taking on a lot."
But we had already planned to emigrate for a while; I just couldn't easily let go of the Netherlands. Plus, I thought I couldn't have more kids due to early menopause, but after some tests, it turned out I was 10+ weeks pregnant.
So now we're in this boat, and I was just wondering if any of you have experienced something similar or are dealing with it, and I'd love it if you could share some info.

Sorry for the extremely long post, but thanks in advance!

Hi, I'm Imane, 22 years old. I've found a studio in Belgium and I want to move. I'm 28 weeks pregnant and I'm alone. I really have no idea if I can give birth in Belgium or which insurance I should sign up for. I want to move because I don't have a house in the Netherlands. I'm renting a single room of 20m². The Child Protection Agency wants to take the baby away when I give birth, so if I move, that won't happen.

What would you do?

How does it work with giving birth across the border and then returning home? Since you're crossing the border and need an ID for that, but you don't have one for the baby when you first come out of the hospital. How does everyone handle this? And what other extra regulations come into play, like nationality, recognition, in which country should that be done, and registering the place of residence...

In our case, it's like this. I am currently living in the Netherlands, and my boyfriend is Belgian and lives in Belgium. Insurance-wise, I need to give birth in the Netherlands. Terneuzen is the closest to my boyfriend's house. But the baby will live in Belgium, and we want the child to get Belgian or dual nationality. And where should my boyfriend register the birth, in the Netherlands or in Belgium? I really can't find any answers to my questions. I've contacted so many agencies and authorities, but they keep referring to each other or giving links to websites that indeed have information on the topic, but not in our specific situation, so I'm not getting anywhere. While there are so many people giving birth across the border...

We live in Belgium and have a Dutch ID (born and raised in the Netherlands).

Had the baby here in Belgium and had to stay in the hospital for 3 days.
You register the baby at the municipality where the little one was born. Your partner can do this while you're still in the hospital.

You'll get the birth certificates with you and can use those to register the baby.

A birth certificate isn’t a valid ID, is it? At least I keep reading that you need to apply for an ID card or passport, even for babies, if you’re going abroad... But we don’t have time for that. Unless we apply for an emergency document at the embassy, but that also requires a passport photo. Not exactly convenient when you’re being discharged from the hospital... and no idea what day it’ll be, and unfortunately, no idea if everything will even be open... It would indeed be nice if the birth certificate could temporarily function as ID... but I don’t see that anywhere...

We don't need to identify ourselves when going to the Netherlands. Where in Belgium are you giving birth? I gave birth in Genk and my little one now has a Dutch ID.

No, there’s no border control unless they’re doing drug or fireworks checks. But normally, an ID is required for anyone crossing a national border.
Our plan is to give birth in Terneuzen, since that’s closest to his place in Belgium.
I’ve been bounced from agencies to the municipality, to the Belgian government, to the Dutch government, and back to the Belgian embassy for my questions, and now they’re sending me back to the municipality. So the bureaucratic circle is going round and round. Basically, no one knows what to do and no one can help me. So I’ll just cross the border without an ID for the baby, get the birth certificate done in Terneuzen, and register the baby in the Belgian municipality where we’ll live. Hopefully, everything will work out fine regarding Belgian nationality.
As for recognition, I’m not sure what I’ll do yet. Given the nationality, registration, and maternity allowance application, maybe it’s better to do the recognition before birth in Belgium rather than the Netherlands, even though I’m Dutch and I’m not getting clear answers on whether that’s allowed. I did understand that recognition can take place in any Dutch municipality. So if it has to be in the Netherlands, it’ll be Terneuzen, since we’ll both be there for check-ups anyway.
Apparently, you’re just expected to figure out your own rules in this situation...

When we got the ID for the little one, he was 2-3 weeks old. The little one now has Dutch nationality. I think you won't have to travel back and forth much with the little one anyway. And if you go abroad and there's a check, I'd definitely take his birth certificate with you. Also, when you've applied for the ID, you'll get a temporary paper from the municipality in the Netherlands at least.