Giving Birth in Barhain: A Complete Guide

Many expats choose to give birth in Bahrain. Sometimes it is less stressful to stay in the Kingdom and find a doctor that you are comfortable with then to separate the family to go to your home country to give birth. Furthermore Bahrain offers some of the best health services in the Middle East with qualified doctors and well equipped hospitals so staying in the Kingdom would be a much preferred choice for some expectant mothers.

If you do become pregnant in Bahrain and subsequently choose to have your baby here the first thing that you must do is find a Doctor who you are comfortable with. Secondly you have to choose the hospital where you will give birth. The state hospitals are very well equipped to handle all kinds of pregnancies and are the choice of some mothers, in case an emergency procedure needs to be performed. Private hospitals are a lot more comfortable than the state hospitals. Of course the choice is the mother’s and father’s. It often depends on where their Doctor is resident too.

In order to assist you with your decision it might be worth noting that state hospitals do not allow family into the delivery room while private hospitals do. The cost from one hospital to the next differs and many have birth packages including ante natal care. Check with your insurance provider if they cover maternity and how much is covered by their scheme.

NB: Although most health insurance packages cover maternity services, some have a qualification period of up to a year and many do not cover the full cost of delivery, particularly C-section deliveries.
To give birth in Bahrain you need to be married and be able to prove this with an attested marriage certificate, single mothers will be in contravention of the law and could face jail time and exclusion from Bahrain.

Request for birth certificate:

In order to log on and request a birth cert you will need to enter the ‘birth notification number’ this will be supplied by the hospital and also the child’s Personal Number, sent by Bahrain’s Central Informatics Organisation (CIO) by SMS to the parents once the hospital registers your child’s birth.

It will take up to 5 days to receive the birth certificate.
Click here for more information.

If you are a British Citizen we have the following information from the British Government website:

Register a birth abroad

You must register your child’s birth according to the regulations in the country where the child was born. They will give you a local birth certificate.
Once you’ve done this you may be able to apply to register the birth with the UK authorities.
You don’t have to do this, but it means:

• you’ll get a UK-style birth certificate for the child
• you’ll have proof that the child is a British citizen
• the birth will be recorded with the General Register Office in the UK

A locally-issued birth certificate should be accepted in the UK for all purposes, eg applying for a passport, registering with a school or doctor etc. It might need to be translated and certified if it’s not in English.