Does anyone have experience of having a home birth in the Zurich area? A friend and her hubby are moving to Switzerland and she is already pregnant. I see from previous threads that she will probably only be entitled to take out basic insurance since she is already pregnant so the other question is; will basic insurance cover a home birth?

I've updated some tags and now....
http://www.englishforum.ch/tags/birthing/

might help - but are not specific to home births.

It should since no doctor is involved and thus, cheaper than a hospital birth. So logically, yes. Reality, well maybe someone else knows or else a quick call to the insurance company should do it.

Please also remind your friend that she has to take out a health insurance for the baby _before_ it is born. It isn't absolutely necessary but definitely to be recommended.

It's only early days so they have still got to find an insurance company which suits.

Yes, good point - will pass that on. Best to do it before the birth - there's enough going on afterwards!

Yep, checked these already - some of the insurance info was useful, though.

I googled the issue quickly and all info I found indicates that it is covered.

This e.g.: "Hebammen sind gemäss Gesetz (KVG) den Ärzten gleichgestellt. Sie können deshalb - auch ohne ärztliche Verordnung - die Begleitung sowohl während der Schwangerschaftb wie auch nach der Geburt übernehmen und zu Lasten der Grundversicherung abrechnen."


She may want to consider "Geburtshaus" though. It is a clinic with midwives present and doctor on call if I am not mistaken.

I put in "hausgeburt grundversicherung" in the search field.

Hi, I have had a homebirth in Geneva 3 years ago and it was all covered by basic insurance. The insurance actually saves money as it is cheaper.... no hospital and doctors charges.....
I had to find a midwife to do it for me (or with me rather) and I can't recommend one in Zürich.

I highly recommend home births, I've done it twice and had a hospital one too and it was so much better at home!!!

Yes, you can have a home birth under general insurance cover. At a home birth two midwives are present. Make an appointment to meet one or both in your neighbourhood - you need to know beforehand if you are on the same wave-length. Check the list provided in an earlier post.
If you want a home water birth, you have to check if your place will support the weight (ask a landlord....), because the tubs are very heavy when filled with water.
You might also want to consider the Delphys birthing house in Zurich, which offers home-birth-like facilities.
And: search "birth" on the Forum - there is a lot of information here on giving birth (in all sorts of ways...)