Some questions I was interest in are listed below – if you are interested in more, I can hook us up with a source.
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Do you get to decide how your labor will look like?
- Can you give birth at home?
- Can you choose not to take medication?
- Are there any alternatives birthing options?
- Are you free to move during labor, can you listen to music, dim the lights etc?
- Who can stay with you at the hospital?
- Can someone be with you during the labor?
- Can your partner cut the umbilical cord?
- Who can visit you in the hospital and when?
- Where does the baby sleep?
- Is skin-to-skin done?
- Is breastfeeding promoted?
- Is episiotomy a normal thing?
- When do you leave hospital?
- Is it typical for someone to move in with you for N-weeks and help around?
- Are there any special traditions that you have respected during the first 40 days after the labor?
- What role does husband/partner play in the early stage?
- Do husbands/partners get a paternal leave?
- When do women go back to work?
- How many women leave work to be stay at home moms?
- What are the main reasons for that (i.e. they genuinely want to stay with kids or find it hard to navigate both)?
- How expensive are daycares?
- How expensive are the nannies?
- Are there in-home daycares (or is there an alternative between a daycare and a nanny)?
- Are there support groups for moms?
- Can moms work remotely (what kind of jobs)?
- Can you bring the baby with you to work? do others ever do that?
- How do you spend the maternity leave?
- Does your baby sleep in the same room as you? when do you transition them out?
- Do parents co-sleep with babies and how?
- Did you feel ready when you went back to work?
- What was the hardest thing about going back to work?
- Are you breastfeeding?
- Was your decision to breastfeed impacted by knowing you have to return to work after N-weeks?
- Did anything change (breastfeeding wise) after you got back to work?
- Are you allowed to breastfeed at work and for how long?
- Are you pumping, exclusively pumping or breastfeeding or formula feeding or anything in between and why?
- Is there a system in place that supports moms with postpartum depression?
- Is there such a thing as lactation specialist?
- Was there a nurse coming to visit you/check in on you and the baby after you were released from the hospital?
- How is mother’s physical health treated? Who examines the mother and when? (Pelvic floor, diastasis, etc.)
- Did/do you take any lactation vitamins or supplements?
- About Prenatal care (
- when do you get the maternity leave,
- are there any changes to your salary,
- who pays your salary – the government or the company,
- what if you are unemployed,
- pelvic floor specialists,
- physiotherapy for the pelvic floor,
- exercises,
- courses and
- pregnancy oriented sports
- When do you first bath the baby?
- When do you start giving solids to the baby?
- How do you introduce the solids?
- Did you sleep train the baby?
Available resources:
- Spain
- Norway
- Australia
- Germany
- Russia
- Italy