Signing up with a maternity hospital

In Prague a porodnice is almost always a department of a big hospital, not a separate building with its own sign. The six you will hear about: ÚPMD Podolí (Praha 4, the largest in the country, about 4 000 births a year), Apolinář (VFN, Praha 2, running since 1875), FN Motol (Praha 5), FN Bulovka (Praha 8), Thomayerova nemocnice in Krč (Praha 4) and FN Královské Vinohrady (Praha 10). You pick freely; there is no catchment area.

The forums still talk about a midnight race for places; that was true years ago, when Podolí capped its monthly births. In 2026 Podolí calls its online form voluntary and asks for it ideally between weeks 14 and 24, with an e-mail confirmation and no visit needed; other hospitals keep their own windows, usually from week 14 ⓘ. Sign up anyway: it puts your file in the system before you are in labour.

Not covered by insurance, and worth it for the vocabulary alone. In Podolí's 2026 price list the Czech course is three sessions for 3 500 Kč on weekdays, the partner comes at no extra cost, and an English-language version costs a little more ⓘ. Book for around week 30; the weekend groups go first.

Fathers have been welcome in Czech delivery rooms since the 1990s, and a dula is common too; usually one person at a time. Some hospitals charge the companion a fee, anything from nothing to about 1 500 Kč in 2026 ⓘ, so ask at the tour. A planned caesarean is a separate question: whether the partner may come into theatre depends on the hospital and on the situation.

Czech midwives prefer „přání“, wishes, to „plán“, and the word choice is the message: one page of what matters to you, not a contract. Podolí even has its own questionnaire for it, „Můj vysněný porod“ (My dream birth), to bring filled in. Keep it short: movement, epidural yes/no/maybe, skin-to-skin, delayed cord clamping, who cuts the cord.

A room you pay for per night, often with your own shower and space for the partner. Podolí's 2026 list runs from 1 700 Kč a night for a single room without a companion to 3 900 Kč for the top family apartment over the Vltava, with a deposit on arrival ⓘ. Usually you ask on the ward after the birth and it depends on what is free; whether one can be booked ahead is worth asking at the tour ⓘ.

The slip your gynekolog writes so the hospital will see you. Podolí books the week-36 check-in only on your own doctor's recommendation, so ask for it at the visit around week 34-35, not on the morning you are due there. Without it you may be sent back; with it, the hospital knows what your doctor wants checked.

The outpatient clinic of the porodnice, where your file for the birth is written up at the check-in, ideally between weeks 35 and 37. Bring the žádanka, the průkazka, your blood group, Rh and antibody result on paper (a copy is fine), ultrasound reports, a passport and the insurance card. Also called „předporodní ambulance“; „ambulance“ here is a clinic, not a vehicle.

For a Czech it is simply the rodné číslo. A foreigner without one has a separate number printed on the insurance card, and that is what hospital forms want whenever they say „rodné číslo (nebo číslo pojištěnce u cizinců)“. Not the passport number, not the residence-card number: the passport number is the classic slip, and it makes your file hard to match with your insurer.

The desk where your file is opened and your insurance checked. Podolí asks patients without trvalý pobyt to come to the kartotéka well before the birth with personal documents and proof of Czech health insurance; if the insurance does not cover pregnancy and birth, you will be told how to proceed or asked for a deposit ⓘ. If you are on a commercial policy, this visit is not optional.

Offered in all the Prague hospitals and covered by public insurance ⓘ. What the check-in can give you is a note in your file that you would like one; what nobody can give you is a promise, because it depends on how labour goes and on the anaesthetist on duty. Write „epidurál - ano, pokud to půjde“ rather than a demand.

Packed and by the door from about week 36, and every hospital publishes its own list (Podolí's is called „Co s sebou do porodnice“). The papers go in first: průkazka, passport, insurance card, the results, the birth preferences and, for the matrika later, your marriage certificate with its translation. Then the car seat, which the hospital will want to see before you leave.