Vaccinations in the Netherlands: Everything International Parents Need to Know

Hey, quick one before we get into today's episode.

If Damn Parenting Podcast has ever helped you figure anything out about life here in the Netherlands, maybe it's the birth story that made you feel less alone, an expert who finally explained something the Dutch system just never bothered to translate.

Well, I'd love you to just do one thing today.

Share this episode with just one person, just one, a new parent, a pregnant friend, someone in that WhatsApp group who's just been asking a lot of questions about the doctor lately and those vaccinations.

Because I promise you one thing, this episode can answer them.

The show is free.

It's every Wednesday and it exists because people like you keep telling other people it exists.

So share it, recommend it, or leave a five-star review on Spotify or Apple.

It makes a difference.

Right.

Let's get into it.

Welcome to Damn Parenting, the weekly podcast for international families navigating pregnancy, birth and parenthood right here in the Netherlands.

I'm Eva, your host, and today we are doing something I've wanted to do for a very long time because this is the topic that I think is the most asked about anything in any WhatsApp group there is going for pregnancy and for postpartum moms.

It's vaccinations.

And I think maybe we should have just a little bit of a backtrack on the vaccination scheme here in the Netherlands.

So it actually set up in 1957.

So it's running 68 years.

It's about protecting children from serious diseases.

It's completely free.

It's completely organized.

And it is completely different from any system that we grew up with in our home countries.

So the program does change and it updates.

In 2025 alone, there were four changes made.

Some moving some schedules up, some adding some on like the RSV, which will be spoken about in a bit.

So the system is comprehensive.

It is evolving and is probably quite different from what you were used to back home, which is exactly where the confusion comes in because every single week, and I mean every single week without fail, I can see the same questions in all the immigrant parenting groups, the pregnancy groups, the new mom groups, even on Reddit, on Facebook groups, and even in my DMs at 11 o'clock at night.

Things like, why isn't the chickenpox vaccination offered here? I mean, it is back home.

I remember one woman was saying she missed a vaccination window and she was just wondering if she can never have that vaccination.

I mean, there are a lot of different questions out there.

And one of my personal favorites was, do I buy the medicine myself and bring it to the doctor? And I'm not making that up.

People are confused.

It is confusing.

So I went back to the expert and I could not be happier to welcome back someone who was one of the most listened to guests when she joined us for the Dutch healthcare system episode.