How friends and family can help
- Bringing food
- Taking the baby for a walk
- Staying with the baby while you sleep or shower
- Doing household chores
- Running errands you don’t have time for
Meeting others, and things to do with your baby
- Yoga, Rückbildung (postpartum recovery) and sport classes
- Family meeting points (Familientreff), for example the Familientreff Thalwil. Your Gemeinde probably has one too.
- Your local library
- Baby swimming (Babyschwimmen)
- Baby massage courses at the Canton of Zürich’s family centres
- Activities at the Gemeinschaftszentren in Zürich
Paid help
- Spitex can help around the house
- A night nanny can stay overnight and care for the baby so you can sleep
- Food and supermarket delivery
- Daycare (Kita) staff often work as nannies too
- A lactation consultant
- A postpartum doula
- Renting an electric breast pump and baby scale
- Look up which pharmacies near you are open 24/7, before you need one
Advice and support services
- Mütter- und Väterberatung: free advice for parents, run by your Gemeinde (for example Thalwil)
- Pro Juventute parent counselling
- Ärztefon, the medical advice line for the Canton of Zürich
- Ask your paediatrician for their emergency number
- Periparto: support with mental health around birth
- Psychological support at Stadtspital Triemli
- If you have thoughts of suicide: Reden kann retten
- All Swiss emergency numbers
This guide is general information, not medical advice. For medical questions, contact your midwife or doctor.