How much does it cost to have a baby in Hungary?

The answer is not simple. It depends on a number of factors, such as what kind of insurance – if any – you have, and what kind of birth experience you would like.

With Hungarian or EU health insurance, and getting all your care through state clinics, it’s possible to have a baby for free in Hungary.

With no insurance, and choosing a private clinic for your prenatal care and a private maternity ward to give birth, your bill can exceed HUF 1 million.

That is quite a range, with everything in between possible, of course. Read more about your options here: Birth in Hungary: How much does it cost?

If you are still confused about how prenatal care and birth services work in Hungary, I’m glad to answer any questions you have. Please make an appointment.

I recently wrote an article about the importance of social support for new mothers after a baby is born. Baby blues is a condition that affects most new mothers as hormonal changes, sleep deprivation, and the sense of responsibility in caring for a new life all take their toll. However, some mothers are particularly vulnerable at this time. Studies have identified a number of risk factors for developing postpartum depression, which is a serious form of clinical depression that can affect mothers in the first months after a baby is born. The one that puts expat mothers at especial risk is the potential lack of social support during this vulnerable time. Lack of social support has been identified as one of the risk factors that are not only correlated with postpartum depression, but may actually cause it. In my experience, the biggest problem is that some mothers tend to underestimate the demands a new baby will place on them, and so do not prepare in advance for the help they will need. Since most of a new mother’s energy and time will be taken up by caring for her baby, somebody else needs to take care of everything else she used to do, from work, errands, shopping, older children, etc. Attempting to keep on meeting these responsibilities after the birth of a baby as if nothing had changed is a one-way ticket towards frustration and possibly depression. Mothers who give birth in a foreign country are especially vulnerable, since they may be far removed from their families and may not have had time yet to develop a network of friends who could help.

To read more about how to identify postpartum depression, how to recognize risk factors, how to prevent or treat it, read my article entitled Expat Moms at Higher Risk for Postpartum Depression.

2. Labor and childbirth

Content: how does labor start, when to go into the hospital or call the midwife, inducing labor, what are the stages of labor, what to expect during them, what does it feel like at each stage, what can the helper do at each stage, the importance of positioning for mother and baby, natural and medicated pain management, how to avoid an episiotomy, what to expect at a Hungarian hospital, what to expect during a C-section, what to expect during a premature delivery, recovery from birth

Handouts: what to pack for the hospital, English-Hungarian shopping list of baby supplies, birth plan worksheet, What Is Labor Like article, What About the Pain in Childbirth article, C-section article

Fees and organization

Cost: HUF 5000 per couple

Location: Életkör, II. Szilágyi Erzsébet fasor 43/b, 3rd floor #3 (Életkör buzzer – keep pushing CONTINUOUSLY!!)

Time: Sunday, May 2, 2010. 2 pm to 6 pm.

If you are interested in attending, please register your interest!

1. Expecting in Hungary. Sunday April 25, 2010 2 pm to 6 pm

Content: Prenatal care in Hungary, how to find and choose the right hospital/doctor/midwife for you, who is the védőnő and what is her function, what kinds of maternity benefits (if any) are you eligible for, how to register a baby’s birth in Hungary if one or both parents are foreign nationals, what’s your due date and why is determining it correctly important, thinking ahead to your birth experience, and how much you can expect to pay for a birth in Hungary, what hospital routines you can expect in Hungary, what pediatric routines (including vaccinations) you can expect in Hungary

Handouts: list of English-speaking obstetricians in Budapest, list of hospitals and clinics with maternity wards, birth plan worksheet, list of registrars, registration and maternity benefits information sheet.

2. Labor and childbirth. Sunday May 2, 2010 2 pm to 6 pm

Content: mother and baby at term, how does labor start, when to go into the hospital or call the midwife, inducing labor, what are the stages of labor, what to expect during each stage, what does it feel like at each stage, what can the helper do at each stage, the importance of positioning for mother and baby, natural and medicated pain management, how to avoid an episiotomy, what to expect at a Hungarian hospital, what to expect during a C-section, what to expect during a premature delivery, recovery from birth, how to prepare for the immediate postpartum period

Handouts: what to pack for the hospital, English-Hungarian shopping list of baby supplies, birth plan worksheet, What Is Labor Like article, What About the Pain in Childbirth article, C-section article

TIME and LOCATION CHANGE!!!

3. Newborn Care. Sunday May 9th, 2010 2 pm to 6 pm

Content: what is a just-born newborn like, what does the Apgar score mean, when to cut the umbilical cord, cord blood banking, what do newborn babies expect from the world, why is skin-to-skin contact important, why is early and frequent breastfeeding important, baby’s secretions: what’s normal and what’s not, feeding and expected weight gain, burping, sleeping, dressing, bathing, umbilical cord care, crying and comforting, types of babies, learning, playing, baby wearing, how to survive the first six weeks

Handouts: English-Hungarian shopping list of baby supplies, breastfeeding cheat sheet, registration and maternity benefits information sheet

Location for this one class: XI. Vak Bottyán utca 3. 3rd floor #1. Press 60 or Békés on the intercom to be let in. Map.

4. Breastfeeding. Sunday May 16, 2010 2 pm to 6 pm

Content: why is breastfeeding good for the baby, why is breastfeeding good for the mother, how to get off to a good start and avoid problems down the line, how does milk production work, how to ensure you have enough milk, how can you tell whether baby is getting enough milk, feeding on cue versus feeding on schedule, sore nipples and other breastfeeding complication, lots of pictures and videos about how to get the baby on the breast correctly (to avoid damage to the nipples and ensure proper milk flow), when to express milk, how to express milk, how to safely store milk, using artificial nipples (bottles and pacifiers), herbs and foods to increase supply, breastfeeding and illness, breastfeeding and medications

Handouts: breastfeeding cheat sheet

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Fees and organization

Private classes: HUF 10 000 per occasion

Group classes: HUF 5000 per couple for groups

Location: Életkör, II. Szilágyi Erzsébet fasor 43/b, 3rd floor #3 (Életkör buzzer)

Please RSVP so I know how many handouts to bring! And feel free to forward this email to anybody you think may be interested.

Birth Prep classes will be held again in April. Sign up now to reserve your place! Scheduling is still flexible, weekday, evening or weekend timeslots available!

1. Expecting in Hungary

Content: Prenatal care in Hungary, how to find and choose the right hospital/doctor/midwife for you, who is the védőnő and what is her function, what kinds of maternity benefits (if any) are you eligible for, how to register a baby’s birth in Hungary if one or both parents are foreign nationals, what’s your due date and why is determining it correctly important, thinking ahead to your birth experience, and how much you can expect to pay for a birth in Hungary

Handouts: list of English-speaking obstetricians in Budapest, list of hospitals and clinics with maternity wards, birth plan worksheet, list of registrars, registration and maternity benefits information sheet.

2. Labor and childbirth

Content: mother and baby at term, how does labor start, when to go into the hospital or call the midwife, inducing labor, what are the stages of labor, what to expect during them, what does it feel like at each stage, what can the helper do at each stage, the importance of positioning for mother and baby, natural and medicated pain management, how to avoid an episiotomy, what to expect at a Hungarian hospital, what to expect during a C-section, what to expect during a premature delivery, recovery from birth

Handouts: what to pack for the hospital, English-Hungarian shopping list of baby supplies, birth plan worksheet, What Is Labor Like article, What About the Pain in Childbirth article, C-section article

3. Breath and Touch

Content: Practice different labor positions for maximizing comfort and efficiency, try relaxation and massage techniques for loosening muscles during labor, discuss and try various breathing patterns and their usability during labor. This is a very hands-on, practical workshop where we TRY everything. Wear loose and comfortable clothing!

4. Newborn care

Content: what is a just-born newborn like, what does the Apgar score mean, when to cut the umbilical cord, cord blood banking, what do newborn babies expect from the world, why is skin-to-skin contact important, why is early and frequent breastfeeding important, baby’s secretions: what’s normal and what’s not, feeding and expected weight gain, burping, sleeping, dressing, bathing, umbilical cord care, crying and comforting, types of babies, learning, playing, baby wearing, how to survive the first six weeks

Handouts: English-Hungarian shopping list of baby supplies, breastfeeding cheat sheet, registration and maternity benefits information sheet

5. Breastfeeding

Content: why is breastfeeding good for the baby, why is breastfeeding good for the mother, how to get off to a good start and avoid problems down the line, how does milk production work, how to ensure you have enough milk, how can you tell whether baby is getting enough milk, feeding on cue versus feeding on schedule, sore nipples and other breastfeeding complication, lots of pictures and videos about how to get the baby on the breast correctly (to avoid damage to the nipples and ensure proper milk flow), when to express milk, how to express milk, how to safely store milk, using artificial nipples (bottles and pacifiers), herbs and foods to increase supply, breastfeeding and illness, breastfeeding and medications

Handouts: breastfeeding cheat sheet

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Fees and organization

Private classes: HUF 10 000 per occasion

Group classes: HUF 5000 per couple for groups

If you are interested in a group class, please register your interest, and I will start figuring out a schedule that fits everyone once there are at least 2  couples. Smaller groups are also possible, but I then ask that you split the HUF 10 000 fee that I charge for a private class among you.

Location: Életkör, II. Szilágyi Erzsébet fasor 43/b, 3rd floor #3 (Életkör buzzer)

Introducing Birth Movie Nights! Once a month, we will get together to watch and discuss documentaries about birth.

Are you pregnant? Or someone with a birth experience you’d like to understand more fully? Or interested in what birthlooks like in other cultures, other places? Or are you wondering how someone could possibly choose to give birth at home / in a hospital? Or are you simply a birthjunkie? Then these movie nights are for you! Once a month, we’ll choose a film to watch, and discuss afterwards.

Next time:

When: January 26th, 2010, from 6 pm to 9 pm

Where: Életkör (II. Szilágyi Erzsébet fasor 43/b, 3rd floor No. 3, Életkör buzzer) Map

Title of the film: The Business of Being Born (click for a trailer)

Donation: We ask for HUF 1000 contribution per person for the space.

Please RSVP. Seating is limited.

Labor pain: What’s the point?

Someone recently asked me during one of my prenatal classes what the point of labor pain was.

I admit I was stumped. I was all prepared with tons of info about what labor pain feels like, what pain management techniques – both natural and medical – there exist for reducing it, how it is generated and how it can be interrupted, why interventions intervene, but somehow I was not prepared for this question of “what’s the use?” I mean, there must be some point to going through labor, otherwise we wouldn’t work this way.

So I looked it up. I read the conflicting theories about its evolutionary purpose and whether there is still a valid reason for experiencing it when we don’t necessarily have to.

Read the rest of the Labor Pain article at the link.

C-section rates in Hungary

According to the Hungarian Health Insurance Supervisory Authority, the rate of C-sections in Hungary in 2006 was 28.9% across the country, though the rate varied widely between individual hospitals. The highest C-section rate of nearly 47% was recorded in the little town of Csorna, while the lowest C-section rate of a bit less than 16% was recorded in Tapolca.

Generally speaking, surgical births were more common in university teaching hospitals and lowest in small town hospitals.

However, a straight comparison between these institutions is not fair, since complicated cases tend to be transferred out of small town hospitals to the large tertiary hospitals that specialize in perinatal pathology. Unfortunately, no research is available that controls for this difference, and only looks at the outcomes of low-risk pregnancies in different hospitals.

What the WHO recommends and why

The WHO (World Health Organization) recently updated its recommendations regarding the rate of surgical deliveries. These recommendations unequivocally state that C-section rates below 5% and over 15% put women’s lives at risk. Why? Because apparently when the number of C-sections rise above 10-15%, the rise in the number of maternal deaths is not balanced by a corresponding decrease in fetal death. What that means is that when C-section rates go above 15%, women start dying unnecessarily due to a procedure that was meant to save their babies’ lives, but didn’t.

C-section rates are on the rise all over the world, so Hungary is not unique in this. Nonetheless, our current C-section rate of about 30% means that at least half of them were performed unnecessarily.

What you can do

It has long been known that the hospital and caregiver you choose play a large role in the outcome of your birth. Yes, apparently, if you have a low-risk pregnancy, the biggest factor determining whether you will receive a cesarean section or an episiotomy is where you choose to give birth, not necessarily whether you need one.

With that in mind, you can do the following things to decrease your chances of receiving an unnecessary C-section:

• Look through the list of various Hungarian hospitals’ C-section rates, and see where your doctor’s institution ranks. Don’t be afraid to change institutions.
• Ask your doctor about his or her C-section rate (though do keep in mind that if your doctor specializes in high risk pregnancies, this number can be higher than average). Hungarian doctors are not used to being questioned this way, and some may actually be offended. However, unless women participate in their own care and ask these questions, maternity care will never reflect women’s real needs and desires. Don’t be afraid to change caregivers.
• Get educated about labor and birth. Attend childbirth classes or read books.
• Let labor begin on its own. Inductions automatically increase your chances of a C-section by 30%.
• Move around in labor. This helps the baby achieve optimal positioning and helps avoid stalled labor, which is often diagnosed as “failure to progress” and is indication for a C-section.
• Bring support. Research has shown that having a continuous support person with you decreases the chances of receiving a C-section. This can be your partner, a family member, a friend or a professional doula.
• Use medications and interventions wisely in order to avoid the so-called cascade of interventions where one step leads to another down a slippery slope towards a surgical birth that could have been avoided.

The current Hungarian C-section rate means that a pregnant woman (that means YOU) has a 1 in 3 chance of having a surgical birth in an average Hungarian hospital. If you want to improve your chances, it is time to do something about it.

Have you ever wondered what a doula actually does at birth? Watch this slide show of what doulas do when they’re “at work.”