Hello,
I am a soon to be mother,I.am going to give birth somewhere in December,in Kunming.I would like to know where I shall go to obtain a local birth cerfificate for my baby. Which bureau releases such documents for foreigners (both me and my husband are non-Chinese citizens). I need this Chinese birth certificate to obtain the baby's final

birth certificate from our Embassy.

Maybe u could consult with National Health and Family Planning Commission of Kunming

@luliana
1. You need to visit a maternity hospital in Kunming NOW. Go EARLY in the morning as the wait lines are cruel and unusual punishment. If you wait, you run the risk that the hospitals will NOT admit you and you will now have a serious problem - not to mention maternity stress.

To give you an idea of the scope of maternity and child care in Kunming - the primary children's hospital typically sees 3,000 OUTPATIENT visits per day and typically has over 1,000 INPATIENT beds in use at roughly 110% utilization (over-utilized). So, choose a hospital as soon as possible. If you can't communicate effectively in Chinese - get a translator or assistant NOW or pay the premium to deliver in the expat friendly hospitals. Remember - just because someone has basic communication skills in English, is NO guarantee of professionalism.

Your bloodwork MUST test clean (NO std's, aids, HIV, etc). The hospital will test you as a pre-condition. This may also reveal other complications, such as pre-Clamydia (which causes high blood pressure and other potential maternity complications with the birth mother). If your bloodwork comes back with a communicable disease, you're facing an entirely new challenge, so hopefully, you won't have to deal with that. I saw this in Japan - the Japanese mother had unknowingly contracted AIDS from her philandering husband and had to give birth in a CDC (center for disease control) hospital trained, skilled, and equipped to handle AIDS patients and babies. It was a heart wrenching stigma for the expectant mother.

Assuming your lab tests come back mostly normal, the hospital will set a date to give birth and will most probably induce labor via IV if you're late. Maternity in China is a machine, but the people are generally good natured and courteous about it all.

Unlike other developed countries, Chinese in general seem to genuinely welcome and embrace children.

2. Once you've registered to see a physician - they'll then direct you to the Kunming Municipal Hospital (near the eastern edge of TuoDeng Lu I think). You'll need to go to that hospital/clinic to apply for the "authorization to have a baby" certificate. I can't remember the exact title - but the maternity hospitals are somewhat interconnected for at least this one thing - this will permit you to name your baby (in advance) and authorizes the hospital to issue you a formal birth certificate, shortly AFTER your baby is born.

3. SOME (probably not in China) hospitals encourage you to donate your own blood to yourself prior to delivery - in case you need a blood transfusion (example c-section, complications, etc).

4. Also, you should be aware - children born in China to non-Chinese citizens are NOT Chinese Citizens by birth. Shortly after your child is born, (30-90 days), you will need to register the baby with the local public security office AND begin the process of applying for your baby's passport.

5. Once you have your baby's passport, you MUST visit the Visa office to get your baby an ENTRY visa. Inevitably, some moron in the visa office may tell you, your baby must leave and return to China in order to get the ENTRY visa (but you can't EXIT without a valid ENTRY visa). Tell them you'd prefer to pay the extra fee, so you do NOT have to travel with a newborn. They will arrange to stamp your new baby's passport with an entry visa.

If the front desk staff give you any bureaucratic nonsense, ask to speak to a supervisor.

ALWAYS be polite, but firm, when things need to be escalated to a supervisory level, if the front desk staff become belligerent or unreasonable. Sometimes, people just have bad days and the front desk staff sometimes like to share their bad days.

Hopefully, I've been more helpful than terrifying (occupational hazard) and wish you only the best in welcoming your newborn child into this world.

PRE-MATERNITY THINGS
You and your husband will need to prepare many (MANY) things pre-delivery. Your husband should buy a reclining chair, which he can sleep on. They're about CNY 100-200. Get your bottles, diapers, baby wipes, formula, clothes NOW. The hospitals will provide the swaddling blanket and sometime after the baby is born, will give you lessons on how to swaddle your newborn, in addition to bathing, feeding, etc. Hopefully you are familiar with and prepared for your new job requirements as newborn parents.

You will most probably stay in the hospital at least one week. The hospitals in China do this to give the mother at least a week's break after carrying the kid around for 9 months.

During that time, your husband will be required to serve you (it's a cultural thing). You'll need to buy this red egg soup base (buy it from your local wet market). The soup base looks like a red crystalized bread roll. it dissolves in hot water. You'll need to stir in eggs and basically create egg white (with egg yolk) soup. So you'll need a small pot to cook the soup, an insulated bowl, chopsticks and soup spoon, in addition to a sponge and soap to wash and clean the eating things. You'll also be required to have a few chocolate bars on hand - or something really sweet. In case your labor goes into overtime and you run out of gas - the candy bars will help give you quick bursts of energy.

MOST hospitals have a bland cafeteria

or two on the premises. Walk around and find the nearby restaurants - but be forewarned, many use MSG in their food and you REALLY don't want that pre/post delivery. It will affect your breast milk - typically making the baby insatiably thirsty, amongst other annoying things.

Your husband and or family and friends will need to care for you like an invalid, while you're cooped up in the hospital. You'll probably share a room with 3-4 others if you get a semi-private room. If you elect the lower budget room - think 10-20 beds in a wide open floor.

Unless your baby has complications - the hospital will provide a baby crib - so you and your hubby can take turns feeding the new eating, crying, peeing, and pooping machine. This is your opportunity to try to put the kid on a 3-hour feeding schedule. Remember - your kid comes to stay with you, NOT the other way around. Putting newborns on feeding (and burping) schedules is critical to your combined sanities in the early months - good luck with that.

Hopefully - you're aware of all these things...and more - such as the follow-on immunizations that come next.

If you have the funds - getting an ayi (housekeeper) to help around the house the first 3-12 months is EXTREMELY helpful. She can be a live-in or a daily visit ayi - cost is roughly the same - ¥2k+ per month.

Make sure the ayi knows she does NOT have baby care requirements - but most ayis will want to help and fuss over the newborn - they can't help themselves. The reason I say this - newborn ayi care is REALLY EXPENSIVE. If you can afford the ¥10k per month+ expense - go for it.

WOW!!!

Very impressive Mike - you covered all the 5Ws and then some. Wish more people could provide replies like you did here. Thumbs up. This thread is worth keeping for any others who may have the same question at a later time. Thumbs up Mike - great job!

I forgot to answer the most critical question. AFTER you get permission from the municipal/provincial hospital to give birth, the maternity hospital itself will issue the birth certificate a few days (or weeks, or months) after delivery. It's mostly up to you WHEN to pick up the certificate. Make sure there are NO errors on the birth certificate - as it's impossible to change anything once the certificate is issued. If you made an incredulous error (such as naming your boy "Sue" - colloquial joke), you can only rectify the situation through a formal name change - which is almost impossible to do also, as the name registration touches so many documents on unconnected computer systems, managed by different departments and organizations - it's almost impossible to fix things thoroughly.

Good info from Michael. I would add that if you (or future readers) go the route of a home birth (there are several foreign midwives in Kunming), you will need to have had checkups at a Kunming hospital. We did a home birth here in 2012, having done prenatal visits at a local hospital (which was our backup in case of emergency). A few days after our baby was born, we took the prenatal records, along with a statement signed by us and our midwife as to why we had the baby at home ("didn't make it to the hospital before the baby was born"). Because we lived in Pan Long district, we went to the Pan Long women and children health care center (盘龙区妇幼保健中心) on Tuodong Lu. Apparently there is/was only one day each week when you were allowed to go there to request a birth certificate, and we went on the wrong day. But when they saw that we had our baby with us (at 2 days old), they dropped everything to type up the birth certificate for us, which was ample proof for our consulate in Chengdu that the baby was ours, and got the passport issued.

For the Chinese visa, we simply waited until it was time to renew our student visa (around 2 months after the baby was born), and added our then-newborn to the family visa without any problems (though because we got our visa through our school, we didn't have to deal directly with the PSB).

@bluegrass14
Thanks for the info, but too scary for us. Out of curiosity, how did you find your midwives? Is there a listing agency or was it word of mouth / personal referral?

Just a note about hospital visits. We now go in the afternoon, the queues are much shorter and there is little if any queue jumping. If your clinic is open all day (many at Kunhua hospital are) try the afternoon

Monday mornings are the busiest times. Actually if you go very early it's not too bad