Parents and future parents

Reconciling student life with maternity or paternity is not easy. You will find information on the actions to take, links to sources of advice, as well as documents to use as resources.

Provisions are also especially made for the protection of pregnant women and pregnant persons.

The checklist below and opposite will provide you with information on the actions to take and anticipate at the start of and during pregnancy as well as after birth, with your employer, and also privately. You can also download these checklists opposite in the form of double-sided documents that are easy and practical to use.

Action checklist

Equipment checklist

List of second-hand shops

Checklist of things to do

• Before or at the start of pregnancy

  If you are trying to become pregnant, you can already get into contact with the occupational safety and health department manager for information on the risk analysis related to your working environment. The conditions in which you work can be assessed, more specifically from the perspective of protecting pregnant women and pregnant persons (ergonomics, difficulty, occupational hygiene, etc.)

• Private actions

  Insurance

  • During your pregnancy, find out how your child will be insured after birth.

  • You have the free choice of health insurer for your child; children and parents do not necessarily have to have the same insurer.

  • So that your child is covered from birth, after comparing offers, take out a pre-natal medical insurance policy.

  • Think of including additional insurance, before the birth of the child.

  • Do not forget to include accident insurance, as the child is not automatically insured in the case of an accident.

   

  Organisation

  • Find a paediatrician before birth.

  • If necessary, find a crèche place, child minder, or any other form of care.

  • Plan for domestic support, if necessary.

  • After birth, plan nursing / stocks of breast milk.

  • Find out about nursing rooms at your workplace, and organise or schedule breastfeeding in view of returning to work.

   

  Equipment and child's needs

  • Draw up your own list of equipment and requirements to welcome your child(ren).

  • Prepare and optimise your home to increase its safety, as well as for your own comfort and organisation. A child grows up quickly. It is thus best to plan ahead: safety barriers, safety fasteners and catches for the baby, corner and edge protectors, layout of their bedroom, changing table, etc.

  Equipment checklist

   

  Finance

  • Check your eligibility for health insurance subsidies.

  • Check your eligibility for additional cantonal family benefits.

  • In general, communes help parents with the cost of the disposal of nappies, either by providing a set number of binbags free of charge or, in the case of a tax by weight, by charging a sum to your binbag card, corresponding to a set number of litres. Ask your commune to find out about these services.

   

  Administrative actions

  • Find out how family benefits, child benefits at birth and employer benefits work and prepare the documents you will need to provide to the relevant compensation fund, or your employer.

  • If you are not married, ask for a declaration of paternity as well as father's custody rights from the civil registry at the place of birth. The biological father can recognise his child without paternal filiation at any time, even before birth.Additional information by canton

  • Where applicable, find out about recognition of the father in his country of origin.

  • Upon the birth of the child, he or she must be declared at the civil registry in the place of birth within 3 days as of delivery. In general, hospitals or birthing centres are responsible for this formality.

  • After birth, you will receive a birth certificate that you will need to give to all official departments and your employer for family benefit applications.

   

  Find the checklist above and download it:

  Action checklist

   

• After birth

  Ask for family benefits, children or adoption benefits and employer benefits.

  For working fathers: take your paternity leave within 6 months of the child's birth.

   

If you need advice, there are organisations that offer support and are ready to listen to your concerns:

Homoparental families

The umbrella organisation for rainbow families socially and legally defends the interests of homoparental families in Switzerland. It also has the purpose of creating a contact network between these families and relevant persons and organisations in Switzerland and abroad.

The term "rainbow family" refers to a family in which at least one parent identifies as homosexual, lesbian, bisexual, queer or trans.