Delivering a baby in the UAE? Problems with a toddler?

[Vadim]

Hello out there!
My pregnant wife and I together with our 2-year old daughter will likely be moving to the UAE in the next couple of months.
Can anyone tell us what the situation with medical care there is like? We would like to know whether we can count on good prenatal care, whether I would be allowed to be with my wife during delivery, whether hospitals are anything like what one is used to in the West...
Also, I assume that hiring a babysitter should be no problem. But does anyone know how much it costs?
How safe and how convenient is the country for families with young children? I read that UAE is not quite free of hepatitis, malaria, and other infectious diseases - is this an issue, particularly at nurseries??
Will really appreciate any related information! Thanxx!

[expatmich]

Hi there, I had my son in Hong Kong, not in the UAE, but I know some people who have had their children here, so will ask. I have a friend who is getting chemo treatment here, and she says the treatment is as good as in her native Scotland (and she knows because this summer when she went home, she had to have the third series done there). The hospitals are okay here. They're not glamorous, but they're fine. There is a few very excellent hospitals but they are for Emiratis only.

Re: babysitters....you could hire a live in nanny and they are about 15 to 20 dirhams an hour (which is about 3 or $3.50 US an hour). There are many available through reputable agencies, if you would like to have one on contract where you are their sponsor (then you have to give them summer time off, and flights back home etc). Or, the other option is to have one part time that is already on a sponsorship visa (but this is technically illegal. Everyone does it though), and they come to you when you arrange it. The major nationalities of the helpers are Philippina, Sri Lankan, Indian, Bangledeshi, Indonesian. Most read and speak English extremely well. Word of mouth from a friend/colleague is almost the best way to locate a helper.

It is not difficult to have a child/toddler here. Dubai and Abu Dhabi and Al Ain are all very clean cities. Before we moved here we did not have any malaria warnings (there are only mosquitos for a couple of months when it's wet (early summer), and I have never heard of anyone having cholera, hepatitus or anything else like that. So I don't know where you got that bit of info.

I will try to find about bearing a child here. The only thing you need to know about having a baby abroad and expecting nationality to be automatic....it isn't. With the Canadian Embassy you will have to make application for your child to be considered a Canadian citizen. If both parents are Canadian, it's pretty much a shoe in, but takes upwads of 9 to 11 months to process. Our son has a Canadian passport now, but he doesn't have a Canadian birth certificate, he has a Canadian National card. You can't ever loose that document because the child will need it to emigrate back to Canada and get a driver's lisence and SIN etc if they ever want to live there. That's something we learned the hard way.

Hope some of this helps...
Expatmich

[expatmich]

Vadim, I have been trying to private message a response to you for two weeks now, and it's not being forwarded. I don't have an email for you to send it to. Would you like the response to be posted here on the board? If so please let me know and I'll post it.

Expatmich

[leighbutler]

See http://dwc.hct.ac.ae/expatinfo/

Al Wasl hospital is the Maternity Hospital here

Leigh