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.

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.

@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.

Kitty - as lemon lover noted - the place EXIT-ENTRY Administration office of the PSB is on Tuodeng Road.Their phone number is 0871－63143436.

WEBSITE ADDRESS
www.kmcrj.com

WARNING
I have NOT done this process myself - HFCAMPO DID do this process about a year ago (I think) and it was not a simple matter for him.

Please note - this is the Visa Exit/Entry office for both Chinese and foreigners, so it's possible I'm directing you to the wrong PSB office - that's why it's better you ask a Chinese speaking friend to come with you, if possible. There's a user on here named taijijulia who MAY help you and others who may require nominal fees.

Also, please remember to bring the smaller ID pictures (at least TWO) and just in case, also bring TWO 2cmx2cm (?) passport photos, just in case. The rules on photos for foreigners at the visa office have changed, you'll need to get photos taken at officially designated photo shops and this may apply to the criminal background check. There's one next (?) to the PSB Visa Exit/Entry office and another across from the Green Lake entrance to Yunnan University. The photos office can supply both passport (larger) and visa (smaller) photos, which are automatically registered with the PSB online.

Foreigners go STRAIGHT upstairs to the third floor (3F). The officers on the third floor usually speak enough english to give you the right forms. This is actually the Visa office, but I believe they handle ALL administrative security matters related to foreigners living in Kunming. IF this is the WRONG office, they can direct you to the correct office - make sure they give you the address in Chinese and if you can't read - in pinyin.

You'll need to provide them the address(es) you used, while living in Kunming and they MAY ask you to visit the local PSB that you were required to register at when you lived here, so be prepared for that...and hopefully that won't happen. If you have the old slips of paper issued by the local PSB (residence registration), that will help a LOT.

Worst case - be prepared for a day or more of running around town. Hopefully the local PSB's are connected by computer, so you won't have to personally go visit them anymore.

Best wishes - HIGHLY recommend you search the old FORUMS for HFCAMPO's post on this matter as he gave an excellent summary of the steps required (including fingerprinting). I vaguely recall he went to a different office or different floor in the PSB building - probably at the old Beijing Lu address - so it is REALLY best you have a chinese friend call the office (they rarely answer their phones) to find the correct address to do this for this FOR FOREIGNERS, as opposed to my guessing - which will only point you to the first step (which may be the wrong first step).

I'm sorry I can't be more helpful - but I'm not in Kunming at the moment.

Kitty
You need the PSB report for the USA, so...

1. PSB. Go to PSB. Apply for and get the Criminal Background Check.
2. Notary. Take the PSB Criminal Background check to the Notary. Have it translated into English, then notarized.

For USA, you MAY need to have the document notarized at either the US consulate, embassy, or in the USA, but hopefully, not.

Good luck - this should be much simpler to do in China than the USA.