I'm an American living in Denmark, where new parents benefit from 52 weeks of family leave, subsidized childcare, and free prenatal care

Ilana Buhl
·5 min read
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  • My husband and I are raising my son in Denmark; it's a great place to have kids.

  • Benefits include free prenatal care, 52 weeks of paid leave, and groups for meeting other new moms.

  • Thanks to a public childcare system, day care is subsidized and costs about $620 a month.

In 2018, after two years of dating long distance, I moved from Dallas to Copenhagen to be with my Danish fiancé. Right after I moved, we got married, and three years later, we welcomed our son, now 2.

I knew that Denmark was a great place to have kids, thanks to a summer study-abroad program I had attended, in which I learned about the Nordic approach to early childhood. However, I didn't realize how lucky I was to raise my child here until I experienced it.

Here are the benefits of raising kids in Denmark.

Prenatal care and birth are 'free'

Denmark has a public healthcare system, so I didn't have to pay for my prenatal care because of our taxes. During my pregnancy, I had three checkups with my general practitioner, five appointments with a midwife from the hospital where I would give birth, and two ultrasounds.

One thing that surprised me was that prenatal care felt much more relaxed in Denmark than I imagined it might be in the US. This is partially because the care is led by midwives, as opposed to OB-GYNs, so it's treated less "medically" in Denmark than in the US.

Though the approach feels a little more laid back than it does in America, if there are problems, pregnant people are referred to the appropriate specialists and get the care that they need at no extra cost.

I gave birth at Denmark's largest hospital, in central Copenhagen, with wonderful midwives supporting me. When complications arose, a team of doctors and nurses stepped in. My son was born, and we stayed one night in the hospital before heading home. We also walked out of the hospital without having to pay a big bill.

I took 16 months of — mostly paid — maternity leave

In Denmark, new parents get 52 weeks of paid leave to share between themselves. I'm a teacher, and my husband and I felt it made sense for me to take the school year off. I took 50 weeks, while he took two. This entire leave was paid; about half the time, I got my full salary, and the other half I got a government stipend called "barselsdagpenge."

My maternity leave started in April 2021, six weeks before my due date. After my 50 weeks of maternity leave, I took five weeks of paid vacation, then one month of unpaid leave to reach the end of the school year. Then it was summer break, and I returned to work in August 2022, making my leave 16 months with only one month unpaid.

If I had still been working as a teacher in the US, I would have likely had to go back to work after just 12 weeks of family leave. I'm so grateful that I could spend a long time at home with my son.

Denmark provides plenty of postnatal care

After my son was born, a home nurse regularly visited and gave him checkups. I could also text her if I had questions and take him to open houses between visits if needed.

During my maternity leave, I was assigned to two mothers groups, or mødregrupper. In Denmark, the home nurses create these groups, which consist of about six parents who live in the same area and have given birth about the same time. The groups meet regularly with their babies while on parental leave. I got assigned to two groups: a Danish group and an international group.

New motherhood can be difficult and isolating, and I was so glad to have these groups to socialize and sometimes vent with.

Getting into day care was easy and affordable

In Denmark, most babies start day care at about 1, when most parents return to work. I've heard that American parents have to tour day cares and are put on wait lists as soon as they find out they're pregnant. I was afraid I would have to go through a similarly competitive process here. Fortunately, that wasn't the case.

Denmark has a public childcare system; all you have to do to register is enter your top two day-care choices into a centralized system. The timeline for this varies by municipality, but in Copenhagen, you have to do this by the time your child is 4 months old. The wait lists can be quite long, but if parents don't get into the day cares they requested by the date they need childcare, they're guaranteed a spot at a day care within 4 kilometers of their home.

Day care isn't free, but it is subsidized, so all day cares within the same municipalities cost the same. In Copenhagen, it costs $620 a month, including lunch, until children are 3 years old, at which point the cost goes down to $400 a month. There are also discounts for siblings and low-income families.

Picture from behind of Ilana Buhl holding hands with her son as they walk down a dirt path outside. Ilana wears a brown winter puffy jacket, blue jeans, and white sneakers. Her son wears a grey knit beanie, tan jacket, blue pants, and brown shoes. Above them is a circular archway made from branches tied together. On either side of them is a crudely made wooden fence. In front of them are several low white houses with thatched roofs.
The author and her son. Courtesy of Ilana Buhl

Overall, I feel incredibly lucky that I became a mother in Denmark and that my son will grow up here. I also have so much respect for American parents who do not have the kind of support that we do here in Denmark.

Read the original article on Insider