Kraamzorg explained, for people who did not grow up here

If you are having a baby in the Netherlands and you did not grow up here, there is one thing about Dutch maternity care that nobody quite manages to explain in time: kraamzorg. A trained maternity carer comes to your house, every day, for roughly the first week after the birth. She is not a cleaner, not a nanny, and not a doctor. There is no equivalent in most countries, which is exactly why it is so hard to look up.

This is the practical version. Nothing here is medical advice — for anything clinical, your verloskundige and huisarts are the people to ask.

What it actually is

Kraamzorg is home maternity care, arranged as part of the standard Dutch system rather than as a luxury. A kraamverzorgende — a trained maternity carer, not a nurse and not a midwife — comes to your home for a set number of hours a day across the first eight or so days after the birth.

It sits inside a chain of care that is worth understanding as a whole:

• The verloskundige (midwife) leads your care through pregnancy and the birth, and remains the person responsible for the medical side during the kraamweek. She visits during that week too.
• The kraamverzorgende is with you day by day in the house.
• After that week, the consultatiebureau takes over following your child’s growth and development, and your huisarts is your everyday doctor.

Four different words, four different people. Everyone here uses the Dutch names, including when speaking English, which is why this app keeps them in Dutch in every language.

Who comes, and for how long

You will usually have one main kraamverzorgende for the week, sometimes two if your week spans her days off. She typically arrives in the morning and stays for a block of hours — more in the first days, tapering as the week goes on.

The total number of hours is decided by an indication based on your situation, not by how much you ask for, and it comes out of a nationally set range. Your kraamzorg organisation works it out with you and can adjust it during the week if things change. Ask them for your specific number rather than trusting an average from a forum.

What she does

More than people expect, and less than people fear.

For the baby and for you. She checks on you both daily and writes down what she observes. She helps with feeding — this is where most of the value is for most families, whether you are breastfeeding, bottle feeding or working it out as you go. She shows you how to bathe the baby, how to handle the umbilical stump, how to dress a body that seems alarmingly floppy the first time. She watches for anything that should be escalated, and she escalates it to the verloskundige. That last part is quietly the most important thing she does.

Around the house, but narrowly. Laundry for the baby, keeping your bedroom and the baby’s space clean, sometimes preparing lunch, sometimes explaining things to grandparents so you do not have to. She is not there to clean your house or look after your older children full time. If you arrive expecting a housekeeper, you will be disappointed and, worse, you will waste the person who is actually there to teach you.

Screening. The hielprik (heel prick) and the gehoortest (hearing screening) both happen in this first week. Whoever performs them, the kraamverzorgende will know when they are due and make sure they are not missed.

Writing it down. She keeps a record of the week: feeds, nappies, sleep, weights, temperatures. Usually in a paper booklet that stays in your house.

That booklet is the reason this app exists, so it gets its own section.

The paper book she leaves behind

At some point in the week you will notice the booklet has become the most useful object in the house. It is how the verloskundige sees, in ten seconds, what happened yesterday. It is how you answer “when was the last feed?” at 4am without arguing about it. It is how the next shift knows what the last one did.

And then the week ends, the kraamverzorgende leaves, and the book stops being maintained — usually at exactly the point where you are alone with the baby for the first time and would most benefit from it. It also fills up, and it is always downstairs when you are upstairs.

That is the whole problem Hodierna was built to fix: the same book, on the phone that is already in your hand, that your partner can also write in, and that your kraamverzorgende can be given access to for exactly as long as she is with you.

What to arrange, and when

Register early. You choose and register with a kraamzorg organisation during pregnancy — most people do it in the first months, and organisations in busy regions do fill up. This is not something to leave until the third trimester.

Check what your insurance covers. Kraamzorg is covered by the Dutch basic health insurance (basisverzekering), but there is a statutory personal contribution per hour that you pay yourself. The exact amount is set nationally and changes from year to year, so get the current figure from your zorgverzekeraar rather than from an article. Some supplementary policies cover it. Ask before the birth, not after the invoice.

Expect an intake conversation. Some weeks before your due date, the organisation will go through your situation, your home and your expectations. This is the moment to say that you would rather have instructions in English, if that is true — many carers speak it well, and it is much easier to arrange in advance than on day one.

Have the house ready. Your bed will need to be at a workable height, which in practice means bedklossen (blocks under the legs). You will need a kraampakket — the box of practical supplies most insurers send you. The organisation will give you a list; the list is short and worth doing properly, because a carer who cannot work safely in your house has to spend her hours differently.

After the week

On the last day there is a handover: what happened during the week, what the consultatiebureau should know, what to keep an eye on and who to call. Have your questions written down beforehand, because the day itself is busy and you will forget them.

Then the consultatiebureau picks up your child’s follow-up care, and the paper booklet stops. Whatever you use next — this app, a notebook, a shared note on a phone — the thing worth keeping is the habit the kraamweek gave you: write it down when it happens, because in three days you will not remember, and the people helping you cannot read your mind.

Hodierna is a baby logbook that works offline and is free forever, with Dutch, English and Turkish throughout. It gives no medical advice — for that, there is your kraamzorg, verloskundige, huisarts and consultatiebureau.

Also in: Türkçe