hajidel:
Good day house; As promised I would like to share my wife's journey after the successful birth of our child and through the help and tips from this forum we acknowledge and show our gratitude. So hence we would like to share our own story so others may benefit from it.

Wife travelled at around 28 weeks and arrived in Montreal without any issues at the airport as we had always declared our intent of giving birth in Canada. I'm not sure if me residing in the USA did any trick but at the POE we were only asked a handful of questions and was let in without any issues. Now that is the easy part.
The real issue came when we needed to get a doctor and hospital to register with. Through the help of others on the forum here albeit most go to Toronto not much experience in Montreal so, we tried walk ins, urgent care, family GP etc but none of them was successful. We then tried to contact the hospitals direct and some would not accept patients without the insurance card which only residents of Canada can have. Some of the other hospitals were requiring us to pay a deposit of between CAD$15,000-25,000 which for me was not worth it. I then proceeded to give my wife hotstepper's contact so she can get another option. Hotstepper was very helpful in offering her services but unfortunately she turned it down as she would not have any relatives in Toronto that would offer emotional help.

Contemplated sending her back home to africa as
1. it did not make financial sense the offers the hospital were giving in terms of the deposit less the delivery (dependent of C or natural),
2. baby and mother per day
3. Epidural
4. Doctors fees
and some other fees that I have even forgotten about.

After a couple of weeks wife made some contacts and ended up choosing a birth center in Ottawa which was only $1500 cheaper than a hospital and only an hour and a half but does not offer epidural and if any complications arose then they would end up in the hospital.
She did a tour of the birthing center and found it fantastic. I decided to go to Canada from the USA myself to check out the center.Pre natal and the birth center visits were conducted every other week to check the progress of both mother and baby and it was all smooth sailing and I travelled back to the USA.

Arrived back in Ottawa 2 days to due date and unfortunately Wife went under 2 weeks overdue. On the day contraction started 2AM and made a call to the midwife and we were asked to come to the center at 4AM and off we went. Stayed at the center (i went to sleep at that time till 10AM LOL) and major contractions started at around that time and the actual labor process started. She came in at 3cm and later opened up to 8cm within a couple of hours. She was being attended to by 3 midwives and an elderly relative of hers who was extremely experienced in birthing and she was actually allowed by the midwives to chip in with her experience as they saw her doing some stuff that gave them confidence in her.

After a long contraction period of sever pains and only about 1.5 hours of pushing, the baby came. A boy at 3.5kg healthy with no complications from either the mom or the baby. No washing or cleaning of the baby whatsoever, just wrapped in blanket. We had a choice of going home after all the checks on mother and baby was done or could stay at the center for 24 or 48 hours at no extra charge. Food and drinks are available a-la-carte and at any time of the day or night. We decided to stay there overnight and left in the afternoon the next day. Once we got home, they bathed and cleaned him.

So tatal cost of the birthing

$CAD5,000

includes the prenatal and after delivery checkups. They also did a home visit 2 days later to check on the baby poo and pee, as well as his weight soft spot in his head. Three subsequent home visits were conducted to check on the progress of the baby. Food, transportation are also a big part of this process so that should not be discounted. So my wife would spend about $CAD100-150 per week on food and transportation.

Now to the paperwork.

In Quebec unlike Toronto were you have a turnaround time of about a week to do the birth declaration/registration (i'm not sure which one), you will have to do Birth Declaration with the state of Quebec. After the delivery, the center/hospital will give a form to confirm that the birth took place there and you will be given a copy of that form which you will take to the state of Quebec to do the declaration, where you will fill the child's full name, the parents names etc. But the catch is, it takes 15 working days for this declaration to be entered into the states system before you even apply for the birth certificate. We did the declaration the next working day and the waiting began. I would think that the declaration may not take the whole 15 days and after 10 or so I went in to inquire and negative and went in 2 times after that nothing. Eventually just the 15th day it was registered late in the afternoon and the next morning first thing we went to do the same day service for the birth certificate as oppose to having it mailed out which will further delay it.
We took the birth certificate and went into the embassy to apply for the travel certificate which was done the same day and we went to the passport office to apply for the passport and also chose the same day service as we had an itinerary that showed we will be traveling soon. We dropped off the passport application in the morning and picked it up in the afternoon and it was a 5 year valid passport.

From the birth to the declaration to the birth certificate and passport application took exactly 3 weeks and they left 2 days later and i went back to the USA to fly out from there.

All in all it was a mixed experience with emotional and physical distress.

My advice to anyone seeking this journey,

DO NOT UNDERTAKE THIS JOURNEY IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH MONEY OR MOST IMPORTANTLY IF YOU DO NOT HAVE EMOTIONAL SUPPORT WHETHER IT BE FAMILY OR FRIEND. BECAUSE YOU CAN PAY THE HOSPITAL OR CENTER ITS ONLY MONEY BUT YOU CANNOT BUY EMOTIONAL SUPPORT

Secondly, you cannot buy the privilege of being a Canadian or any country in the west that offers Jus Soli citizenship as it is a key to traveling the world easily without much hassle and the medical and educational advantages that comes with it. No disrespect to my african roots as I am proud to be african.

Mental and emotional wellbeing or the benefits of being a citizen. If you have family who will offer you that and financially capable, then bingo go for it, but if no mental and emotional support, even if you have the financial means you might regret. So it comes down to what is more important to each individual.

Congrats hadigel on safe delivery and everything worked out as planned.am curious on why u prefer Canada than USA as choice to give birth.thanks

aquaboss11:
I'm surprised to hear that the Birth center in Ottawa billed you 5000. Which if the birthing Center precisely. Community Midwives or Ottawa South??

Thank God for you and your family n safe delivery.wanted to ask u if you had option to give birth I n USA and y you picked Canada