Our Office

Method

The booking appointment will take 60 minutes, and the subsequent appointments about 30 minutes. We can tell you about our Dutch healthcare system, and answer all your questions. We believe that having a personal relationship with you contributes to a better pregnancy and birth.

In the Netherlands you can choose to give birth at home birth, in a birth centre or in hospital (midwife-led hospital birth). We think it is important that you make a well informed decision about your place of birth. We will provide you with all the necessary information so that you can make the decisions that suits your personal situation and preferences about prenatal testing, place of birth, methods of dealing with labour pain and all other choices you need to make as parents.

Thank you for your care, for looking after us so well and for giving us a very good experience! We couln’t have wanted more

Kiki, Andrew and happy baby Josephine

If you need medical care

As midwives, we attend uncomplicated pregnancies and births. If complications arise during pregnancy or labour we consult the obstetrician or we refer you to an obstetrician if needed. When we refer you to an obstetrician during labour we try to stay with you and support you The hospital will then provide the medical care which will be carried out by midwives, nurses and doctors.

If you want us to support you during labour if you were already referred to the obstetrician during pregnancy, we can discuss this.

If your pregnancy is medical with the gynecologist:

Also if you are pregnant under guidance of the gynecologist, you can subscribe for guidance in the postnatal period.

Thank you for good and kind taking care. It was special to feel so safe and confident in this beautiful period

Karin, mother of Hugo and Josephine, born at home

The midwifes

Constance Erwich

Ever since the birth of my youngest sister, I have been fascinated by pregnancy. Endlessly, I browsed through the book of Lennart Nilsson ‘A Child Is Born’ with beautiful pictures of babies inside the womb. How a complete human being can grow from two cells, how that small human being is born, it is still a very special event for me.

After a detour, I started midwifery education in 2002 and qualified in 2006. Since then I work at the midwifery practice Vondelpark, first in a duo practice, nowadays in a small group practice. I am the practice owner and that means that I organise and arrange many things. But nothing can beat attending a beautiful birth. By the way, I would still recommend you to read ‘A Child Is Born’.

Caroline Grootes

After 20 years of running a large practice in Amstelveen, I started working in Amsterdam. While helping out in quite a few different practices in Amsterdam, I landed in the Vondelpark practice to help them out for 3 month, and stayed since, now more then 8 years. I immediately felt at home in this practice. In this place everybody gets more time, not just someone incidently, but all the time

To achieve this, we take in less clients. So we see fewer women, to ensure we can really be there when needed the most. So we usually do not rush from one delivery to another, so we have time to talk about what matters for you. Nowadays there are so many choices to make, in pregnancy and parenthood, in this time where so much is possible, it is not so easy to know what to do or not to do. I like to speak with parents to be about their choices. I like to be your guide in midwifery-land, answer all your questions, be your coach in labor, your support in the first week with the baby.

My aim and drive are optimal healthcare for women and their families, easy accessible, open, always available. I do this as a women, as a midwife, as daughter and mother of three big daughters. To empower women, enlarge there selfesteem, and selfconfidence, with clear true information, reassurance, comfort, compassion and mildness/gentleness, and always humor.

Ank de Jonge

I have been a midwife for 25 years and still think it is a beautiful profession. I am very happy to support you during pregnant and labour in a way that suits you best. As a midwife I worked in England, Scotland and Nigeria. Since 2000 I work in the Netherlands and since 2010 in midwifery practice Vondelpark. I like about our practice that we have a lot of time for you during antenatal appointments and labour. That way, we can adjust our care to what is important to you.

About one-fourth of my time I work as a midwife. My other work is as a researcher at the department of Midwifery Science at Amsterdam UMC, location VUmc. Together with my colleagues I conduct research, for example, into ultrasound in pregnancy and place of birth.

I really like the combination of practice and research. Our clinical practice helps me to think of research questions that are important to answer to improve the care for you and your baby. Vice versa, as a researcher I have easy access to research findings and I can tell you all about them if you like.

Sarah Nijssen

In 2018 studeerde ik af aan de Verloskunde Academie in Amsterdam, inclusief twee prachtige stage-ervaringen in Tanzania en Sri Lanka. Na een aantal jaren veel ervaring te hebben opgedaan te hebben bij een grote praktijk in het centrum van Amsterdam, werk ik sinds oktober 2021 bij deze praktijk. Ik vind het superleuk om te mogen werken in deze diverse stad, geen dag is hetzelfde. De switch naar kleinschalig werken met meer tijd en aandacht bevalt mij goed.

Ik vind het geweldig dat ik in mijn vak aanwezig mag zijn bij zo’n itiem life-event als het krijgen van een kind. Ik heb grote interesse voor het (vrouwen)lichaam en de geest en hoe deze twee met elkaar samenwerken. Ik wil hier dan ook zoveel mogelijk over leren, zodat ik vrouwenvan allerlei verschillende achtergronden kan begeleiden en empoweren. Daar waar we zien dat de zorg zich steeds meer gaat specialiseren wil ik mijn kennis juist zoveel mogelijk verbreden, en de mens in zijn geheel blijven zien. Zo ben ik ook sporttrainer geworden en heb ik op die manier veel kennis opgedaan over het veranderende zwangere lijf en de bekkenbodem. Ik vind het leuk om tijdens consulten samen te kijken of bepaalde zwangerschapskwaaltjes met oefeningen op te lossen zijn.

Samen met collega Caroline Grootes geef ik sinds begin 2022 een zwangerschapscursus die op Mindfulness is gebaseerd voor cliënten uit onze eigen praktijk. Tijdens de uitgebreide cursus behandelen we niet allen de bevalling, maar krijg je ook tools aangereikt die je helpen tijdens de zwangerschap en de kraamtijd. We bespreken ook borstvoeding, en we komen samen in beweging. Een erg leuke manier om jullie nog wat beter te leren kennen.

Starting points

Our office is member of the Royal Dutch Midwifery Society (KNOV) All midwifes are registered in the quality register for midwifes.

Base of the practice:

• Birth is a physiological phenomenon in life.
• The pregnant woman, her partner and the midwife are equal in relationship.
• If extra help is needed, for example from the gynecologist we are mediator. Starting point is the autonomy of the mother and father to be.

What does this mean?

• We only guide a limited amount of pregnant women each month.
• In consultations you can chose to see only one midwife every meeting.
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• We are flexible: we can take more time if needed. In consultation or during birth.
• We work with a birth plan, you can make it according to your preferences. We will discuss it during the consultation.
• If needed in the postpartum period, we organise you extra help around the breastfeeding or we can prolong your time with the kraamzorg with two extra days.
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