Hi everyone

My partner and I have just been told we are expecting twins!

As this is my first pregnancy, I have lots of questions and was wondering if there is anyone that can recommend where to go to for general advice. For example, everything from pregnancy classes in English, to what type of stroller to buy, to how the labour procedure works in CH.

Also, my partner is an EU citizen with a C permit, and I am non-EU with a B permit and I would also like to know where to get some information on how citizenship etc. will work and if we need to get married beforehand?

Finally, it seems that previous threads regarding mother's groups are quite old, so I was wondering if there are any English mother's groups or even Mums to be groups in the Zürich areaa?

Thanks in advance!

Congratulations! I hope everything is going well for you.
I highly recommend Dr. Nicole Ochsenbein at UniversitätsSpital Zürich. She is the multiple birth specialist there.

The difference between parents and non-parents, is that non-parents will say to you 'oh how sweet, they'll be able to play together-.

Parents will say "Poor you".

Congrats!

Do you need a double buggy?

(Can't blame a guy for trying... )

Congratulations what lovely news!

If you are both legally here and non Swiss then the twins will automatically take your surname and nationality, but since you and your partner come from different countries. It is best to consult your embassies on where you stand. We have been there and have had twins in Switzerland and it is interesting. Both myself and my partner aren't married and we are here with my partners job, so I am allowed to stay in Switzerland because the children are here, but have no rights to work. With regards to a birth certificate, that will be issued in Switzerland under Swiss law, (everything automatically goes to the mothers side) but you can change (choose) the surnames of your children if your country allows it. We are both British and decided to have the Surname of our children as hersurname-mysurname which we are allowed under British law. This was a hastle to do, trips to the embassy to say that I was the paternal father and my partner the paternal mother etc, but we got there. The original birth certificates were reissued with the childrens correct names.

Marriage shouldn't be neccesary.

My tips would be:-

1: Don't panic and buy some books about twins.
2: Twins are amazing, hard work but very rewarding, so find a buggy that will fold up easily and fit in your car (if you have one).
3: When the twins are born it is all about routine, feeding them together, so that you can rest between feeds.

Worst thing about twins is going shopping with a double buggy. You will find that aisles and supermarket checkouts aren't made for a twin buggy.

Uh oh! Double trouble, may the force be with you!

Congrats! Bethanien hospital also does english language birth prep classes if that is a convenient location for you. You don't have to be having your baby(ies) there to book onto them but they get full so book in advance. You insurance pays a chunk towards them.

I don't really have any info for you - I know there are definitely Zurich based baby groups and English antenatal classes, but all my "info" is on Basel stuff so I'll leave it to the locals.

But, I did want to say congratulations
(you must be a bit in but hey, there's nothing you can do about it now!)

Rest assured though that having a baby here is a good thing. If there's one thing I have really enjoyed about living here it's the standard of care afforded to me when I was pregnant - and you'll be getting the super-special care with twins I'm sure.

Take care

Thanks everyone for all the information and kind words! )

Congratulations!

Ask your respective embassies about citizenship. Also (if you can get your mind to it), I suggest you should figure out what difference marriage would mean in your case, or if you should write a will to cover the (almost) unthinkable.

No offence meant, but for me parenthood meant a big change of responsibility.

Enjoy, and best of luck.

Don't have any advice but wanted to wish you congratulations and a healthy happy pregnancy.

Congratulations and my best wishes

If you don't have a good ob-gyn try or want to change: www.gyne.ch is a perfect address I can personally recommend.

www.birthlight.ch offer English classes in yoga (great) and I think they have also antenatal courses, but can't say anything about it. I visited those at Hirslanden, their website is www.hirslandenbaby.ch

Just joining my congratulations and best wishes

Non-parent.
Parent.

Or is my theory complete twaddle.

My two pennies worth, store up as much sleep as you can!! Instead of getting up to load the washing or some other chore, lay in bed for an extra hour at every opportunity as the chance of that happening once the kiddies arrive is practically zero

Congratulations and stay healthy

Hi,
I have healthy and happy 14 month old girl/boy twins who were full term babies.
I did lots of research and have found excellent resources here in Zurich. I also have a couple of very good twin books that I no longer need.
Having twins is stressful, the pregnancy requires you to take greater care (if you want them to stay in for 38 weeks) and if you don't have family here, it can be overwhelming. If you'd like to chat, you can PM me and we can find a time to talk on the phone or meet up. I can also tell you what things we bought eg. stroller type etc. I also have a few things that I no longer need that are all in excellent condition if you are interested.
Kind regards,
Amy

Congrats and the best of luck to all of you!

NotAllThere: you are completely right. That is why I try to keep my mouth shut if friends are expecting their first baby, otherwise I'll start blabbing like an old granny about what [not] tot do, haha!
The fact that babies are your own product, is their very protection shield

Congratulations!!!! and good luck , some things...; sleep alot now, buy the things with time (diapers and others), buy a stroller easy to move and light (if you found one like that for twins), if you are thinking in give the breast buy a milchpumpe, buy nuggi (you will need it), also when you think in bed for babys is better travel beds, so you can take it with you when you need it, when the babys are born try to not colaps, for a woman with the first child normally are in caos for the 3 or 4 months..i cant imagine with 2, so your husband need to help after he arrive everyday from work , and you can have at least 30 minutes just for you.
good luck