Two lines on the test

The word you will say most often this year, in the ordinace, to HR, to the neighbour. „Jsem těhotná“ is plain and fine everywhere; „čekáme miminko“ is the warm version for friends. „V jiném stavu“ („in another state“) is old-fashioned and sounds like a grandmother.

In Czechia you register with one gynaecologist of your choice, who then gets paid by your insurer for looking after you and does your yearly check-up. She is the one who will run the whole pregnancy. If you have none yet, start calling the moment you suspect anything: in Prague „nové pacientky nebereme“ is the most common reply on the phone.

Czech doctors work „na objednání“: you call during the hours the practice answers the phone, usually early morning, and get a date. Without a booking you sit among the „akutní“ cases and wait. „Kdy se můžu objednat?“ is the key question.

Both the room and the whole small practice, often a doctor plus one nurse in a converted flat on the ground floor of an apartment block. On the door you will read „ordinační hodiny“ (consulting hours), and below them which mornings are only for booked patients.

The first question at the first visit, and the doctor wants the first day of it. Have the date in your phone before you sit down; in the booklet it becomes the abbreviation PM, and the due date is counted from it.

Counted from the last period and then corrected by the first ultrasound; written TP in the booklet. Czechs use it in small talk all the time: „Kdy máš termín?“ is what every colleague and neighbour will ask once you tell them.

The plastic card from your health insurer, shown at every single visit, at the hospital and at the pharmacy. Its colour and logo tell the nurse at a glance whether you are in the public system (VZP, OZP, ČPZP and the others) or on a commercial policy. Keep only the current one in your wallet.

If you work for a Czech employer, you are in it automatically from day one, whatever your residence permit, and pregnancy and birth cost you nothing extra beyond a few optional tests. The baby's own insurance is a separate matter: if neither parent has trvalý pobyt, the parents pay a monthly premium for the child (lesson 07) ⓘ. The catch is the family: a spouse who came on a family residence permit and does not work here is not in it.

The policy a non-EU foreigner on long-term residence needs when not employed in Czechia: self-employed, student, family member. Since August 2021 it has been sold by Pojišťovna VZP (PVZP), and in 2026 that is still the practical answer ⓘ. It covers pregnancy and birth only after a waiting period, so it must exist well before the two lines do.

The months after you buy a commercial policy during which certain care is not covered. For pregnancy it has commonly been three months, and a pregnancy that began inside that window is not covered at all; the birth itself may carry its own conditions ⓘ. PVZP also sells a separate product, „MÁMA A MIMINKO“, that covers pregnancy and birth without the waiting period if the insurer approves it ⓘ. Public insurance has no waiting period.

A folded card booklet the gynaecologist issues at the first or second visit and fills in at every check-up: dates, blood group, results, weight, blood pressure. You carry it everywhere, including to the porodnice; without it the hospital starts from zero. Put it in a plastic sleeve: it lives in your bag for nine months.

At or right after the first visit the nurse takes blood for the basic panel: blood group and Rh factor, blood count, infections. Come in the morning and do not eat beforehand unless told otherwise. „Jdu na odběry“ means „I am going to have blood taken“.