Post-natal care

POST-NATAL CARE : for a comfortable start in your own home

What is post-natal care?

This is the period between the time you give birth, and the 6 to 8 weeks following. This corresponds to the amount of time that your body needs to recover from the nine months of pregnancy.

Apart from the physical changes, there will also be enormous changes in your lifestyle when you become a parent. The new parents have to get to know their baby, and their lives have to adapt to a completely new rhythm. Learning to recognise the baby’s needs, and how to respond to them, can be a real challenge. The midwife’s home visits can help to ensure a smooth transition between the maternity ward and your own home.
The weeks following the birth are crucial: this is the time when the important bonds are formed between the parents and the child.
It is my role as midwife to support you, as a new family, during this phase, and to be available to answer all your questions, and to discuss any difficulties.

What happens during home visits ?
• Overseeing your physical recovery (checking the womb and ensuring that any scars are healing properly)
• Advising you on breast-feeding
• Advice on how to care for your baby at home (feeding schedule, care of the umbilicus, nappy-changing, bathing)
• Checking the baby’s weight and development
• Where indicated, carrying out the routine blood test for the baby’s metabolic screening (known as the « PKU test »; https://www.meduniwien.ac.at/hp/1/newborn-screening/)
• Administering Vitamin K

Fees: 85,- per hour

For patients who have Austrian health insurance cover :
I invoice you directly for home visits, and you will be reimbursed 80% of the fee in accordance with the tarifs set by the health insurance (i.e. 28,50€)

IMPORTANT: Leaving the hospital
Every hospital discharge before the 4th day following the birth (the day of the birth is not counted) is classed as « vorzeitige Entlassung »,= early discharge, and you have the right to a partial refund from the insurance.
Leaving hospital more than 4 days after the birth means that the insurance will not reimburse you.

Example: Your baby is born on Tuesday. You have to be discharged on the Friday, in order for you to claim reimbursement.

For the postnatal period, your insurance covers part of the costs of home visits, in function of the day on which you leave the clinic, and the circumstances of the birth, as follows :

Normal vaginal delivery

Caesarian, premature birth (before 37th week), multiple birth
Source: Österreichisches Hebammengremium/Landesgeschäftsstelle Steiermark und Burgenland