The postpartum care system Spain aspires to have: a professional caregiver in the home for eight days to look after both mother and baby

Monday, Jul 6, 2026

Compares postpartum care models (Kraamzorg) in Netherlands, Hungary, and other European countries versus Spain’s system.

🔗 Read the article on elconfidencial.com

Also republished by:

Voxeurop - ENG / GER / SPA


[This is an automatically generated summary, for reference only]

A Spanish resident who moved from Madrid to Amsterdam shared her positive experience with kraamzorg, a home nursing service provided for mothers and newborns in the Netherlands following birth. This universal healthcare system requires mandatory private insurance. The service assists with baby care, such as diaper changes and temperature checks, while also helping with household tasks and ensuring the mother’s well-being. In contrast, Spain relies on midwives during pregnancy and pediatricians after birth; while postpartum care is considered good quality, it varies by region, and there can be a gap in support immediately following hospital discharge. Midwives suggest that adopting elements of the Dutch model could improve postnatal care but requires significant investment in human resources. Other countries have different approaches: France offers some home visits through its national health system, focusing on maternal recovery and infant health; Austria provides medical and psychosocial support via midwife visits, though lacking comprehensive daily practical help like the Dutch model; and the Czech Republic has no state-subsidized postnatal care, leaving private hiring as an option for some.


🔗 Read the original article

© 2026 Pulse - Europe beyond the beat


PULSE is an initiative for cross-border collaborative journalism in Europe co-funded by the European Commission under Grant Agreement n. PO 4500158093.

PULSE is an initiative coordinated by OBCT that has been promoting intensive journalistic cross-border collaborations in Europe since 2024. Its main aim is to help strengthen the European public sphere by reporting on and telling stories from new and diverse perspectives.

At the heart of PULSE are 10 leading national news outlets (Delfi – Lithuania, Deník Referendum – Czechia, Der Standard – Austria, EfSyn – Greece, El Confidencial – Spain, Gazeta Wyborcza – Poland, HotNews – Romania, HVG – Hungary, Il Sole 24 Ore – Italy, Mediapool – Bulgaria) and three transnational organisations, including OBCT , n-ost and Voxeurop .

Additional outlets and journalists are involved as associate partners, including EUobserver , Føljeton (Denmark), H-Alter (Croatia), Levila (Estonia), Rubryka (Ukraine), and The Journal Investigates (Ireland).

PULSE is driven by a sort of virtual transnational newsroom made up of journalists from all the publications involved. It collaboratively produces new journalistic content on European issues on a daily basis, coming in many different languages. The editorial output amounts to over a thousand publications per year, mostly in article form.

PULSE also runs 4 thematic networks open to any European journalist interested in crucial issues such as EU enlargement, relations between the EU and other global powers, the EU’s green transition, or media and the information society. These networks function as online communities and periodically publish calls for pitches.