Pregnancy & New Parents

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle during your pregnancy is important for you and for baby. It is also a time when you may have lots of questions. Below you will find helpful resources to prepare for a new baby.

Expectant parents

The HSE has a range of information and guidance on pregnancy available at HSE/mychild.ie.

Antenatal classes help you to prepare for labour, birth and becoming a parent. For useful information and online resources visit HSE/antenatalclasses. For information and advice on pregnancy and COVID-19 visit HSE/COVID-19 and pregnancy.

It is just as important to be aware of and have treatment for mental health problems as it is for physical health problems in pregnancy. You can find information on mental health in pregnancy and the National Programme for Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Services at HSE.ie.

There are over thirty short videos available, developed by the Traveller Health Unit in the HSÉ, for pregnant Travellers, available here.

Registering a birth

For information on how to register a birth go to gov.ie/registerabirth.

Under 6s GP visit card

All children under 6 years of age living in Ireland can get a GP visit card. For more information, visit HSE.ie/under 6 GP Card.

Child benefit

Child Benefit is a monthly payment to the parents or guardians of children under 16 years of age, or 18 if in fulltime education. On registering the birth of a child, the DEASP will begin a benefit claim for you and send you a form to complete the process. Learn more at Gov.ie.

Changes a baby brings

For comprehensive advice and support for parents of young children visit from mychild.ie.

My Options is a HSE Freephone line (1800 828 010) that provides free and confidential information and counselling to people experiencing an unplanned pregnancy. For more information see HSE.ie/MyOptions.