Maternity is covered in full by the basic insurance. This applies to all cantons.

So, to resume the expenses related to child birth are :

- All doctor visits including all tests before delivery (8 i guess)
- Hospital charges (what does it inlcude? everything? room charges, doctor bills, clinic test bills, food etc..)

So is it correct that 100% of these charges are reimbursed by basic insurance.. no franchise apply, no 10% participation.. thanks for enlightening...
Also, if u decide to go in a private room of HUG Geneve, how do they spilit charges between basic insurance and supplementary insurance..

And what about lumpsum payment.. is it a norm in all cantons or just in canton de vaud. What's the procedure to get it? And who gets it in case both husband and wife works? And any idea on amount in Geneva canton

In my experiencel here there is a lot of choice about how you want to give birth, but some of the options are limited by how your gynaecologist practices. Mine was in favour of everything except underwater birth.
The "norm " would be a totally natural birth, and it is encouraged- not like some places that want births over and done quickly to fit their staff schedules.
They do not push you into any kind of painkilling techniques. You design your birth plan and your midwife and advises you on your choices. And the baby doesn't have to spend even a second out of your sight if you don't want it.

Some things you will still have to pay for as franchise does apply:
1) Medecines such as megnesium, ante and post natal vitamins etc
2) Pump rental (if you get one)
3) Midwives visits after birth (if you choose to have them but highly reccommended)

K

I had my baby just under a year ago in vevey - but he was transferred to the CHUV for medicla reasons - they were great.

My maternity policy was 100% for all standard treatments - any complications came under my franchise and the 10%.
For instance i was hospitalised with severe sickness - this was not covered under my maternity insurance, but covered under standard illness

I think this baby cost approx 40k chf (his special care was 20k) of that - and I probably paid about 1500CHf towards it (1000chf franchise and then 10%'s)

Both me and my husband work in Vaud - I filled in the form and handed it to my payrol department - they sent it off to the canton and my next pay packet had 1500 chfs in it. If you have twins its 6000chf!

It really varies from place to place. Ideally, it is what you said, and most of my friends had a good experiences. Some of them, though, myself included, had attrocious one, so one must be careful and not leave oneself solely in hands of the medical staff, trusting them do the best. Because they sometimes ain't doing their best.

The local place I gave birth pushed people through the process very quickly, apparently they were overbooked. No respect to anybody's birth plan, I am not sure they know what it even is. All of the women were only allowed to lay on their backs, I was overdosed on epi, the labor stopped and I had to have a c-section. I was not given my child on my chest, breastfeeding was not encouraged, they took our child away for good couple of scary hours. C-section sucks and the staff was not helping me tend to my newborn right post-op.

I do not want to harp, just warn peeps - check out the hospital ratio of c-sections, epidurals and other interventions, if you can. Ask your hubby to educate himself on possible risks for you or your babe or hire a doula. After I gave birth I found out there is a general dislike for the practices of our local maternity ward by some OBs, which I unfortunately couldn't have known since we just moved in.

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience MusicChick

You are very right in that it does vary from hospital to hospital - i had a midwife at the start of my labour who was very much you stay on your back - cant move around etc (i was hooked up to lots of monitors and 2 lots of drips going in) - but then a student came on shift who spoke some english -so she was assigned to me and she was amazing - helped me move around - encouraged me to try hypnobirthing, listened to my concerns etc (with the help of a dictonary)

I have no idea about the cost (or pain or whatever) associate with giving birth....

But, don't forget that in CH it is mandatory to have local health insurance if you live here (few exceptions). The good side of that is that any health insurer will have to accept you regardless of your current condition (at least for basic coverage - not for private) - i.e., you should be able to sign up for Swiss health insurance now and have all the cost associated with the birth covered (or at least around 90%).