A healthy pregnancy in the Netherlands is not a medical condition and is not managed by a doctor.
It is managed by a verloskundige, an independent midwife, who is the primary carer from the first appointment until a week after the birth.
You do not need a referral and you do not need to see your GP first.
You ring a midwifery practice yourself.
For people arriving from systems built around obstetricians, that single fact reorganises everything that follows, including where the birth happens and who is in the room.
The first call, and when to make it
Book as soon as you know.
Midwifery practices in The Hague fill up, and the first appointment is usually arranged for somewhere around eight to ten weeks, with the practice deciding the timing once they know your dates.
Ringing early secures the practice, not necessarily an earlier appointment.
The midwife takes your history, arranges the blood screening offered to all pregnant women, and sets out the screening choices.
She refers you to an obstetrician if something in your history or your pregnancy calls for it, and hands care back if it resolves.
Roughly a quarter of births in the Netherlands are completed under primary care, and about three quarters end up in hospital under a gynaecologist, which is a measure of how readily the system escalates when it needs to rather than a sign that midwife-led care is unusual.
Ask at the first contact whether the practice works in English.
Many in this city do, and the ones that do not will usually say so straight away.
Midwives and maternity care in The Hague are a well-served field compared with finding a GP here, which is genuinely difficult.
Screening, and what it costs
Three things are offered and all three are optional.
You have a counselling appointment first, and choosing not to know is a recognised answer that nobody will argue with.
The NIPT, a blood test for chromosomal conditions, is offered from week 10.
The 13-week scan runs from week 12+3 to week 14+3 and the 20-week scan from week 18+0 to week 21+0, both looking for physical abnormalities and checking development.
None of them costs you anything.
The NIPT has been funded from the national budget since 1 April 2023 and is paid out through the regional centres for prenatal screening, with no own contribution and no effect on the excess.
The two scans are likewise free.
Follow-up diagnostics, if the screening finds something, are covered by the basic insurance but can come out of your 385 euro eigen risico.
The national screening programme publishes in English at pns.nl, which is the exception rather than the rule in Dutch healthcare and worth using.
Where you give birth
Home birth remains a genuine option here rather than a fringe choice, and the reason is that midwives are trained and equipped to conduct one.
If your pregnancy is uncomplicated, the choice between home, a birth centre and an outpatient hospital birth under your own midwife is yours to make and can be revisited.
The numbers give the honest shape of it.
In 2024, 25.8% of women gave birth in primary care, meaning at home, in a birth centre or in a midwife-led clinic, and 73.9% in secondary care under a gynaecologist.
Transfers happen during labour, most commonly for complications or because an epidural is wanted, and an epidural means hospital because it means an anaesthetist.
Pain relief is the point where expectations most often diverge.
Ask your midwife early and explicitly what is available, where, and what it changes about who is looking after you.
The answer is a practical one about staffing and location, and it is much better had at twenty weeks than at four centimetres.
A hospital birth without a medical indication carries an own contribution of 22.50 euro a day for the mother and 22.50 a day per baby in 2026.
With a medical indication it does not.
Kraamzorg, the part nobody warns you about
Kraamzorg is the thing that makes the Dutch system unlike almost anywhere else.
After the birth a maternity nurse comes to your home, every day, for up to ten days.
She checks the mother and the baby, helps with feeding, teaches you how to bathe and handle a newborn, watches for problems, and does the housework and the shopping while she is there.
It is covered by the basic insurance for a maximum of ten days, with a minimum of 24 hours and a maximum of 80 hours.
The exact number is set by the kraamcentrum under the national indication protocol, based on your circumstances rather than your preference.
The statutory own contribution for 2026 is 5.70 euro an hour at home.
Hours delivered by video call are exempt.
Some supplementary policies reimburse the own contribution, which is one of the few supplementary benefits that reliably pays for itself if you are planning a family.
Neither kraamzorg nor midwifery care touches the eigen risico.
They are both on the exemption list, so the own contribution is the whole of what you pay.
Book the kraamzorg early. Genuinely early.
This is the single most repeated piece of advice from anyone who has had a baby here, and it is the one internationals most often miss because nothing in their previous experience has an equivalent.
Register with a kraamzorg organisation in the first trimester, around the same time as you settle your midwife.
Capacity is finite, they allocate by booking date, and a late booking means fewer hours or an organisation you did not choose.
Your midwifery practice will name the organisations it works with.
Ask them at the first appointment, and ask whether the kraamverzorgende can be English-speaking, because someone will be in your house for eight hours a day during the week you are least able to translate anything.
The paperwork around the birth
A birth in Den Haag must be registered with the gemeente within three working days, and the day of the birth itself does not count.
Registration is free; a certified copy of the birth certificate costs 17.80 euro.
You can register at Stadhuis Spui, Stadskantoor Leyweg or Stadsdeelkantoor Laak.
Bring valid identification for whoever is registering and for the mother, plus the birth statement from the hospital or midwife giving the name, date and time.
Online registration exists but only where your hospital or midwifery practice has arranged it with the gemeente, and only in limited cases, so assume you are going in person.
If the parents are not married or in a registered partnership, acknowledge the child before the birth.
Erkenning before birth is free, arranged by appointment at Stadhuis Spui or Stadskantoor Leyweg, and means the child has two legal parents from the moment of birth.
Acknowledgement also gives joint parental authority with the mother.
Doing it while pregnant costs an hour; doing it afterwards, with a newborn and a three-day deadline, costs considerably more patience.
The birth also flows into everything else administrative.
Your child is entered in the population register and given a BSN, and must be added to your health insurance within four months, although no premium is charged for children on the basic package.
Kinderbijslag and, if you plan to use childcare, kinderopvangtoeslag are claimed through DigiD and belong with the other Dutch allowances.
Nurseries in this city have waiting lists measured in months, so daycare is another thing to arrange while still pregnant.
After the ten days
Care passes to the consultatiebureau, the child health clinic, which handles growth monitoring, vaccinations and development checks through the preschool years.
Your midwife discharges you roughly six weeks after the birth, and anything beyond that goes through your GP in the ordinary way.
If the postnatal period is harder than expected, say so to the kraamverzorgende or the midwife rather than waiting for the six-week appointment.
Both are trained to spot it and both can route you to help, including English-language mental health care, which starts with the GP and is faster than people assume.
Sources
- KNOV and deverloskundige.nl: the verloskundige as the independent primary carer in Dutch maternity care
- VZinfo, zorg rond de geboorte, citing Perined and peristat.nl, data for 2024 accessed April 2026: 25.8% of women giving birth in primary care and 73.9% in secondary care, and transfer to hospital on complications or for epidural pain relief
- PNS.nl, prenatal screening, English pages: the NIPT offered from week 10, the 13-week scan from week 12+3 to 14+3 and the 20-week scan from week 18+0 to 21+0, what each looks for, that participation is voluntary and that none of the three is charged to the pregnant woman
- PNS.nl, kosten van de NIPT en vervolgonderzoek: the NIPT free to the pregnant woman, funded by the Ministry of Health from the national budget since 1 April 2023 and paid out through the regional centres for prenatal screening, and follow-up diagnostics covered by the basic insurance but potentially counting against the excess
- Rijksoverheid, wanneer betaal ik een eigen bijdrage: the 2026 kraamzorg own contribution of 5.70 euro an hour at home and 22.50 euro a day for the mother plus 22.50 euro a day per baby in an institution
- Rijksoverheid, eigen risico zorgverzekering: midwifery care and kraamzorg exempt from the 385 euro excess for 2026
- Zorgwijzer and insurer coverage summaries of kraamzorg: cover from the basic insurance for a maximum of ten days, a minimum of 24 and maximum of 80 hours, the hours set by the kraamcentrum under the national indication protocol, video-call hours exempt from the own contribution, and supplementary policies that reimburse the own contribution
- Gemeente Den Haag, aangifte van geboorte doen: registration within three working days with the day of birth not counting, free registration, 17.80 euro for a birth certificate copy, the locations Stadhuis Spui, Stadskantoor Leyweg and Stadsdeelkantoor Laak, the documents required, and the limited conditions for online registration
- Gemeente Den Haag, erkenning kind voor de geboorte: free acknowledgement before birth by appointment at Stadhuis Spui or Stadskantoor Leyweg, giving the child two legal parents at birth and joint parental authority
- Government.nl, standard health insurance: children under 18 must be insured and pay no premium on the basic package
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