Pregnant in a Foreign Country? Read This First

Written By Jessica Gabrielzyk

Source: 9gag

Whether becoming a mom abroad was part of your plan or life’s surprise, you probably imagined a smooth journey — routine checkups, supportive care, and comforting traditions

But here’s the truth: Becoming a mother in a foreign country is rarely effortless. It’s beautiful, yes — but also disorienting, lonely, and filled with moments you never see on Instagram.

Why I Wrote Maternity Abroad

When I pictured having a baby abroad, I thought I’d be ready. I wasn’t.

I stumbled through confusing healthcare systems, faced unexpected bills, and discovered maternity leave policies the hard way. Friends tried to help, but their stories didn’t match mine.

That gap — between the life we imagine and the one we live — is what led me to write Maternity Abroad: Becoming a Mother in a Foreign Land.

📖 This Book Isn’t a Checklist. It’s a Lifeline.

It’s a real companion for moms navigating one of life’s most vulnerable transitions — far from home. Built on real stories, it explores:

  • How local systems reshape your idea of “care”

  • Cultural expectations around birth and recovery

  • The experience of parenting without your usual support network

  • How to find your strength when everything feels foreign

💌 Start Reading — Free

Download the first 40 pages of Maternity Abroad — no strings attached.

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What’s Next?

If Maternity Abroad is about beginnings, my next book, Parenting Unpacked, explores what comes after: the identity shifts, the quiet grief, and the deep resilience of raising kids across cultures.

Because motherhood abroad isn’t just about surviving — it’s about becoming.

Jessica Gabrielzyk

Jessica Gabrielzyk is a Brazilian writer living in Switzerland. She moved there with her husband and daughter, who was three months old at the time and had strong opinions about the whole thing even then.

She writes about change.

The visible kind and the kind that happens inside a person, while everything on the outside looks fine.

Her first book, Maternity Abroad, explored what it means to become a mother far from the system you trusted. It has reached readers in more than fifteen countries across five continents. Parenting Unpacked, her second book, follows the experience of parenting through major life disruption, whether that's an international move, a career loss, a new baby, or a life that simply stops responding the way it used to. My First American Coloring Book was created to help toddlers engage with daily life in the United States through play and familiar imagery.

She is a member of SIETAR, the Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research, and the International Academy of Brazilian Literature.

She writes for the parent who is still inside it, getting through the day, and wondering somewhere underneath all of it who they are becoming.

When she is not writing, she is walking forty minutes uphill with a stroller, telling herself the exercise is the point.

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