I gave birth in the US and Poland. I had more freedom to choose care in Poland, but that sometimes felt overwhelming.

• I've had one child in the US and one child in Poland.
• My experiences in the two countries were significantly different.

"Which birth package do you want?" the hospital coordinator asked me. I had no clue. I'd never had to choose a birth package before. I didn't know what that even meant. Cue my tears from instantly feeling overwhelmed.

This was my experience in Warsaw, Poland, where I was expected to be an active participant in deciding the type of care I wanted both during and after my pregnancy. It was much different from my experience in the US.

I gave birth to my first child in 2018 in the US and had my second in 2020 in Warsaw, where we lived temporarily.

I had the freedom to choose certain things about my care

In the US, you stay in the hospital until you're discharged, as determined by the medical team. That's what I had been expecting in Poland, but that wasn't the case.

I was to choose, in advance, how long I wanted to stay in the hospital after giving birth. The birth-package choices were two or four nights. I also had to decide if I wanted to use a rotating midwife or doctor, a dedicated midwife, or a dedicated doctor. It seemed that the standard for most expecting mothers was to use a midwife. I ended up choosing a dedicated midwife to ensure I had someone who spoke English.

Medical care was different in my experience

In the US, I was accustomed to having a set schedule for follow-up appointments and prenatal-care visits. Generally I went every four weeks for a checkup until I was 28 weeks pregnant. Then I started going every two weeks. At 36 weeks, I started going weekly.

In Poland, there was no predetermined schedule. The doctor told me to come back if I felt any changes or if anything was going on. I was also responsible for bringing my "pregnancy card" and records to each appointment. In the US, the office retains all this information and has it available for the doctor to view during each visit.

In Poland, I was required to have my blood drawn on two occasions to verify my blood type. It was imperative that I bring both copies of the tests to the hospital when it was time to deliver. The hospital made it sound like if I didn't have the required paperwork it wouldn't let me deliver there.

This added a layer of stress that seemed unnecessary compared with my experience in the US.

During prenatal-care visits in the US, you can expect to be weighed and measured and to get your blood pressure checked every time. This never happened to me in Poland. The doctor would ask me my weight but never measured my belly or checked my blood pressure.

Another big difference with the prenatal-care visits was that in Poland the doctor remained in one room, and the patients came and went from that room. My doctor also stuck to the allotted appointment times and stayed on schedule. In the US, I often waited a long time to be seen.

In Poland, before delivery, I was required to have consultations with specialists from anesthesia and neonatology. During these consultations, my records were reviewed, and I went over questions I had. Additionally, I was given a rundown of what to expect from each of the teams during and after labor. As a foreigner unfamiliar with the standard procedures, I found this helpful.

If I had to choose between the two countries to have another pregnancy and delivery in, I would have to choose the US. The ability to communicate in the same language paired with the attention to my prenatal care gave me extra comfort.