Counting Down to Maternity Abroad🌍🤰

“Quote from the book Maternity Abroad: Becoming a Mother in a Foreign Land discussing how access to prenatal care varies by healthcare system, with a stack of books on the left side of the design.”

I can finally say it out loud: Maternity Abroad is coming this November.

This book has lived in my head and heart for years. Now it’s almost ready to be in your hands. Writing it wasn’t just about putting words on a page — it was about gathering real stories from mothers across the world and weaving them into something I wish I’d had when I was pregnant abroad myself.

Why I Wrote It in English First

Many people ask me why the first edition is in English, not Portuguese. The truth? I wanted to challenge myself. Writing in a second language made me strip back the fluff and focus on clarity. It reminded me of Haruki Murakami, who once said that writing in another language helped him keep his sentences simple and sharp.

And simplicity matters here. Because pregnancy abroad already feels complicated enough — the last thing we need is a book that makes it harder.

What You’ll Find Inside

  • Real stories from mothers navigating pregnancy in countries far from their own

  • Expert insights from doulas, doctors, and specialists

  • Cultural perspectives on birth and postpartum around the world

  • Practical advice for healthcare, paperwork, and building a support system

  • And maybe most importantly: the reminder that you’re not alone

I can’t wait for you to read it.

Mark your calendars for November 2024.

📖 Maternity Abroad will be available worldwide, in print and Kindle.

Because motherhood far from home is a journey no one should have to make alone.


Other Publications

Fifteen Minutes at a Time follows Emily and Daniel under the rain‑soaked arches of Waterloo Bridge, where routine turns into connection and glances say more than words.

This short story is free to read — a little escape into tenderness and possibility.

🌍 Parenting abroad isn’t just logistics — it’s identity, belonging, and the quiet work of building a home away from home. Parenting Unpacked is here to hold your hand through it.

✨ Coming soon — sign up to be the first to know.


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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“Maternity Abroad” is Heading to Copy Editing!

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The Inspiration Behind “Maternity Abroad” 🌍🤰