Having a Baby in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan is a country where maternal healthcare is a continuing effort by the local government and foreign communities. For example, USAID an international organization that vigorously pushes for providing solutions to core problems leading to childbirth-related issues such as lack of awareness of women about proper maternal care and hospitals being underequipped.

In theory, the country's public healthcare system provides free basic hospital services, including childbirth. But because bribing has become endemic in the system, expat women take out private health insurance in Kazakhstan to ensure adequate coverage during pregnancy and childbirth. Most women in the country give birth with the assistance of SBA's or Skilled Birth Attendants, especially in the rural areas while those in the urban cities come to obstetricians-gynecologists.

There is no special system for having a baby in Kazakhstan, but one thing unique about the country's maternal care patterns are the various rituals associated with childbirth. For example, a pregnant woman is not allowed to eat camel meat as this is believed to delay childbirth. If someone were to visit this pregnant woman at her house, the person must give her gifts; otherwise, she gets a sore throat or sore breasts when nursing.

As it is, the country is the perfect place for giving birth, and this is the reason expat women have been taking out international health insurance in Kazakhstan to ensure a healthier and more comfortable childbirth.

In terms of children born to expatriate parents in Kazakhstan, dual citizenship is not currently recognized but there are efforts by the former Soviet republics to allow it in the future.