Pregnancy and Childbirth

We would like to recommend a very helpful website that provides excellent guidelines for all stages of pregnancy:

Digital BabypointBabypoint () helps you organize tasks related to pregnancy and birth with a personalized checklist. After an initial registration, you can also use the "First issue of certificates" service to apply for a birth certificate, proof of citizenship and residence registration.

As soon as the employer becomes aware of an employee's pregnancy, he/she must comply with the protective provisions of the Maternity Protection Act (Mutterschutzgesetz – MSchG).

The employee must inform the employer of the baby's due date. The employer may request a medical certificate.

The protective provisions of the Maternity Protection Act apply to:

• Blue-collar workers
• Salaried employees
• Apprentices

• The expectant mother enjoys protection against dismissal and termination of employment. As a rule, this protection ends 4 months after the birth of the child. If you are on maternity leave after this period, protection against dismissal continues until 4 weeks after the end of maternity leave. Protection against dismissal means that the employer may only terminate the employment of the individual with the prior approval of the Labour and Social Court.
• It is strictly forbidden to work during the period of “Mutterschutz”. This usually lasts from 8 weeks before to 8 weeks after the birth. However, in the event of a premature birth, multiple births or a caesarean section, this period lasts until 12 weeks after the birth. 
• In certain cases, if the life or health of the mother or child would be endangered in the workplace, the expectant mother may also be forbidden to work prior to the 8-week “Mutterschutz” period. In this case, a specialist medical certificate from a doctor who confirms this must be submitted to your employer. 
• The employer is not responsible for paying the employee’s wages/salary during this period, when they are not allowed to work. The pregnant woman or mother receives an average salary from the ÖGK (maternity allowance).
• The above regulations also apply to freelance employees.

Once a pregnancy has been established, every pregnant woman resident in Austria receives a Parent-child Pass from her doctor.

The pass is used for preventive health care for pregnant women and infants up to the age of five.

The examinations provided in the Parent-child Pass initiative are an opportunity for the early detection and timely treatment of illnesses and for monitoring the child's development. All pregnant women and parents of young children should therefore take the opportunity to ensure the best possible preventive care for mother and child and have these examinations carried out.

The examinations are carried out either by your GP, or a relevant specialist. Attending these examinations during pregnancy and up to the child's 14th month of life is a prerequisite for receiving the full amount of childcare allowance (with the exception of pregnancy ultrasounds, hip ultrasounds and midwife consultations).

The ultrasound examinations included in the Parent-child Pass initiative serve to monitor the child's development and to detect multiple pregnancies. Ultrasound examinations can provide additional information to a standard clinical examination. This means that abnormalities can be detected at an early stage and taken into account or treated as the pregnancy progresses.

Giving birth in a country other than your own may lead to stress, but Austria offers one of the best health care systems during and after birth.

Nevertheless, there are many questions that need to be answered: Is it preferable to give birth in a hospital with a team of doctors and midwives or with just a midwife?

Which hospitals are particularly well equipped for childbirth? Should the child perhaps be born at home after all? What support measures are available during the birth?

All medical procedures in connection with the birth, including planned or emergency caesarean sections, are covered by public health insurance.

The birth of a child necessarily involves a number of administrative procedures so that the parents receive the most important documents for their child.

In this chapter you will find an overview of this topic to help you. We have prepared a checklist for you, where you will find a link to detailed information on deadlines and the required documents, etc. for each authority.

All the official procedures listed here can be completed after the birth at the registry officeregistry office () where the child was born. As it usually takes some time to prepare the documents, they cannot usually be issued immediately. The checklist below is intended to give you a step-by-step overview of the official procedures to be carried out.

The Digital Babypoint supports expectant parents with a personalized pregnancy and birth checklist. You can request the issuance of documents like birth certificates, proof of Austrian citizenship, and residence registration online through the Digital Baby Point platform.

Some hospitals (in Vienna, for example, at the General Hospital and the SMZ-Ost/Donauspital) have a branch of the registry office ("Babypoint"). In some other hospitals (without a branch of the registry office), special baby registration services are offered, such as the forwarding of required documents from the parents to the registry office.

The following is a complete list of the documents that must be brought to the registry office if all of the above-mentioned official procedures are to be completed following the birth. The documents required for each specific procedure can be found under links provided. Documents which may have to be submitted in individual cases (e.g. consent of the legal representative for an acknowledgment of paternity of a minor father) are not listed here.

• Official photo IDs of the child's parents
• Birth certificates of the child's parents
• Married parents: Marriage certificate
• Proof of citizenship of the child's parents
• If residing abroad: proof of the parents' main place of residence
• If applicable, a divorce certificate with confirmation of the legal validity of the divorced marriage (you can obtain this from the divorce court) or marriage certificate from the previous marriage and death certificate of the spouse
• Partnership certificatePartnership certificate (), if applicable
• If applicable, proof of academic degrees of the child's parents
• If applicable, acknowledgement of paternity statement
• If applicable, proof of name change

Maternity allowance (Wochengeld) is intended to provide financial support for the expectant mother around the time of the birth and is paid as compensation for loss income. Maternity allowance is paid monthly in arrears, over the following period:

• eight weeks before the baby's due date,
• on the actual birth date and
• eight weeks after the birth (in the case of multiple, premature or caesarean births: twelve weeks after the birth). A premature birth is deemed to have occurred if the birth takes place before the 37th week of pregnancy.

If a specialist doctor, labour inspector or public health officer has imposed a ban on working before or after the statutory period, maternity allowance is also paid for the duration of this ban.