- I'm a mom of four. Two of my children were born in the US, and the other two in New Zealand.
- The care I received from midwives in New Zealand was intimate and tailored to my needs.
- I owed well over $5,000 for each birth in the US, whereas in New Zealand it was all free.
It wasn't until my husband and I had sold our belongings and booked our tickets to move with our two kids across the world from the US to New Zealand in 2016 that I discovered I was pregnant with our third child.
I naively assumed that my experiences of pregnancy and birth would be the same as my first two. Just like the countries, my birth experiences were oceans apart.
With our first baby, nothing went as planned. I was determined to have a vaginal birth. I even sought out the hospital nearest to us that had the lowest cesarean rate and wrote out my intricate birth plan, only to discover at 37 weeks that my baby was breech and I would require a C-section.
When I became pregnant with my second son, I searched across the entire San Diego area to find a provider that would allow me to have a vaginal birth after a cesarean. When my baby's head started crowning, I was told to wait to push while a nurse called the doctor to let him know it was time to come to the hospital.
"Don't worry," the nurses told me as I sat with my baby's head partially out. "He lives five minutes away, and he doesn't like to miss it."
In contrast, the free, personalized care I received in New Zealand, as well as the feeling that I was going through a natural process rather than a medical procedure, made giving birth there a more supportive and less overwhelming experience. It also made for a much smoother transition into motherhood my third and fourth times.
In New Zealand, care is midwifery-led
I arrived in New Zealand during my second trimester, and my cousins set me up with the midwife they had used for their births. In New Zealand, you won't see an obstetrician unless you have a high-risk pregnancy or experience complications. Most perinatal care is led by midwives.
The same midwife was there for me throughout both pregnancies, delivered my third and fourth babies, and checked in on me throughout the postpartum period.
My prenatal visits didn't feel time-constrained, and I could text my midwife at any time with questions or concerns and receive a quick response. She became like family by the time my baby was born.
The care I received from pregnancy through postpartum was intimate in New Zealand, a stark difference from the clinical approach I received in the United States.
In New Zealand, my care was free
The schedule of care was much the same as in the US, yet I didn't pay a cent for my visits or required lab work in New Zealand.
In the US, we paid well over $5,000 each for the births of our first and second child, on top of our decent insurance plan.
When my baby measured small at the regular scan, my midwife mentioned cautiously that she would like me to get regular scans to ensure he was growing properly, and that it would cost me $25 for the scans since they were outside of the regularly scheduled scans.
I laughed thinking back on how I paid a $150-plus copay for every ultrasound that I had in San Diego.
I got intimate postpartum care in New Zealand
The postpartum care I received in New Zealand had the biggest effect on my well-being.
After giving birth, many people register at a local birthing center, where you can stay free of charge for up to five days in a homelike environment and receive one-on-one care for you and your baby.
Instead of waddling out of my house with an adult diaper, leaky breasts, and a heavy infant seat to the pediatrician's office three days after birth — like I did in the US — my midwife came to our house to check on both me and the baby.
And instead of waiting six weeks, which is standard in the US, my midwife sat at my bedside every day for the first couple of days after the birth and then once a week for the first six weeks. With three children under the age of 5, I was also given free in-home help for cleaning, washing dishes, and doing laundry.