Having a Baby in Portugal: Americans and Britons, Step by Step

Pregnancy care is free in the SNS for women living in Portugal for more than 90 days, and the birth must be registered, free of charge, soon after the baby is born. Parental leave and its subsidy come from your employer and the Segurança Social, and your home country’s paperwork (the US Consular Report of Birth Abroad, the optional UK registration) comes on top.

This is a process guide, not medical advice. For how the health system works first, read our guide to healthcare access for newcomers and the step-by-step on SNS registration. We read the pages below on 19 October 2026. The latest information they state is dated 11 September 2026, the “updated” date at the top of the gov.pt guides on birth registration, work absences and financial support; the parental leave guide and the subsidy page are dated 4 September 2026, and the IRN pages 30 April and 12 June 2026. Several gov.pt guides carry an older “updated” line at the bottom of the page than at the top; we use the date at the top. This is not legal advice.

Who gets pregnancy care in the SNS, and is it free?

The gov.pt guide “Acompanhamento na gravidez” opens with the rule: pregnant women, “portuguesas ou estrangeiras” (Portuguese or foreign), who have lived in Portugal for more than 90 days are entitled to free consultations during pregnancy and for 60 days after the birth. To use this you go to the health center, say you are pregnant and ask to be followed by a family doctor.

The page adds a case that matters to newcomers. A foreign pregnant woman who does not hold a residence permit is entitled to the same free consultations if she shows a residence certificate issued by the parish council (junta de freguesia) stating that she has lived in Portugal for more than 90 days. The SNS portal page on pregnancy is shorter and says that all pregnant women are entitled to free care, at the health center and at the hospital; that page is dated 29 April 2021, so we rely on the gov.pt guide for the 90 days.

Two practical links. Having a user number is the first step, covered in our SNS registration guide. And the gov.pt page says that at the first consultation you receive the Boletim de Saúde da Grávida (pregnant woman’s health booklet), in which the health professional records every observation, including the expected delivery date.

What does antenatal follow-up look like?

The gov.pt guide gives this schedule for a normal, low-risk pregnancy. We report it as the page states it and give no medical judgment:

Beyond the consultations, the page says regular clinical exams and tests are done. It also says that women followed in the SNS are entitled to dental vouchers (cheques-dentista) handed out by the family doctor, up to 3, usable until 60 days after the birth, with free treatment.

Near the due date the family doctor refers the woman to a consultation at the hospital where the baby will be born, which is the time to discuss a birth plan: pain-control preferences and who will be present. The page notes that if there are complications, being accompanied is not possible. For the numbers to call in an emergency, see our guide to emergency care in Portugal.

The gov.pt page also says it is advisable to carry the booklet, for priority service in public offices and for exemption from user fees (taxas moderadoras) in health services. It can also be used to tell your employer you are pregnant.

What does it mean at work?

The gov.pt guide on leave and absences says an employed woman must tell her employer she is pregnant, in writing, backed by a medical certificate or the Boletim. The gov.pt pregnancy guide says mothers and fathers may be absent from work to attend antenatal consultations, with fathers entitled to up to 3 such absences, and that preparation for childbirth counts as an antenatal consultation. The leave and absences guide describes protection against dismissal: a pregnant worker can be dismissed only after a favorable opinion of the Commission for Equality in Labor and Employment (CITE) or by a court decision. Your contract and your social security record are the basis for everything that follows, so see our guide to the employee contract and social security rights and to the Social Security number (NISS).

How and when do I register the birth?

The Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado (IRN) page says the birth registration is free and mandatory and should be done right after the birth, preferably at the maternity or hospital where the child was born. The page “Nascer Cidadão” says that at a hospital with that counter, registration must be done before the mother is discharged. Where there is no such counter, the registration can be requested online or at any civil registry, “nos 20 dias depois do nascimento” (within 20 days of the birth). The gov.pt guide says the same: at the Nascer Cidadão counter if the maternity has one, or at a civil registry within 20 days.

If the parents are married to each other, either can make the online request. If not, one parent submits the declaration and the other receives an email to confirm it. In person, the page says an unmarried father must be present to acknowledge paternity, otherwise a separate acknowledgment (perfilhação) follows. The child’s name should respect the rules: as a rule up to two given names and four surnames. If you have no Chave Móvel Digital yet, see our guide to the Chave Móvel Digital.

On the online registration route, the gov.pt service page says the birth certificate is sent by post to the address you give, at no cost, and a PDF copy of the record is sent by email. The general IRN birth page says that once the registration is complete the parents receive a paper certificate and the baby’s Citizen Card at no cost. The pages we read do not say how many days the certificate takes. We have not read a page that lists the documents a foreign parent must bring beyond those above, so confirm with the counter or the civil registry what they want to see for your passport or residence card.

Does the baby get a Portuguese Citizen Card, NIF and user number?

The IRN says that after registration the Cartão de Cidadão of the baby is issued free of charge when requested for a child up to 1 year old, and the gov.pt guide says that when a Portuguese child’s first Citizen Card is requested, the NIF, the NISS and the SNS user number are assigned at the same time. Those pages speak of a Portuguese baby. They do not say how a foreign baby gets these numbers, and we did not find a page that does. For the tax number, read our NIF guide and ask the registry or the tax office what applies to your child. For your baby’s vaccinations, see our guide to the Portuguese vaccination programme.

Is my baby Portuguese?

The gov.pt guide on registration says children of foreign parents born in Portugal can have Portuguese nationality at birth, in its words, if one of the parents was born in Portugal and lives there, and that a parent must present the documents that prove it when registering. It lists later routes too, for example if a parent has lived in Portugal with a valid residence permit for more than 5 years. The nationality rules changed in 2026; we cover them in our guide to the 2026 nationality law changes, and we have not checked the gov.pt text against them, so treat that paragraph of the gov.pt guide as a pointer and not as your answer.

What do the US and UK sides require?

Americans. The U.S. Embassy in Lisbon page says that a U.S. citizen parent should report the child’s birth abroad as soon as possible, to establish an official record of the child’s claim to U.S. citizenship at birth. The record is the Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA, Form FS-240), issued to a child born abroad to a U.S. citizen parent or parents who meet the requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act, and applications must be made before the child’s 18th birthday. The process on that page: create a Login.gov account, submit the eCRBA application with the required documents, pay, book an appointment, and attend with original documents; the child and both parents must be present. The Embassy fee page lists the CRBA for a child born in Portugal at $100. The Embassy page also offers applying for the first U.S. passport on the same day, with Form DS-11. We could not open the travel.state.gov page on this topic (it blocked our requests), so we rely on the Embassy’s pages and do not state who transmits citizenship.

Britons. GOV.UK says you must register the birth under the rules of the country where the child was born, and you get a local birth certificate that should be accepted in the UK, for example for a passport or school. If it is not in English you need an approved translation. Registering with the UK authorities as well may be possible for a child born on or after 1 January 1983, and is optional. It costs £150, plus £50 for each consular birth registration certificate, plus return postage of £6 to £42 depending on the country, and takes at least 5 working days plus courier time. GOV.UK adds that you can still apply for a UK passport if you do not register the birth in the UK. We did not read the nationality rules that decide whether a child born abroad is British, so ask the UK authorities if you are unsure.

What are the leave and the subsidy, and who is eligible?

The gov.pt guide on parental leave says the initial parental leave lasts 120 or 150 consecutive days, weekends and holidays included, and the choice only changes the subsidy. It includes a compulsory period of 42 days for the mother right after the birth, and of 28 days for the father (the first 7 immediately after the birth, the rest within the mother’s 42 days), with 7 more optional days for the father. The mother may also take up to 30 days before the birth, which count toward the total.

The 30 extra days require that the leave after the mother’s 42 days is split, with each parent alone at home for at least 30 consecutive days or two periods of 15. The father’s compulsory 28 + 7 days are always paid at 100%. The reference pay is the average gross pay in the first 6 of the 8 months before the leave, divided by 180; the daily subsidy cannot be below 14.32 euros (the guide ties this to the 2026 IAS of 537.13 euros).

On who is eligible, the guide and the Segurança Social practical guide (published 20 May 2026) say you must be on leave and have worked with pay records for at least six months, consecutive or not (gov.pt leave guide). Only the Segurança Social guide adds that the months can be in the Portuguese system “ou outro sistema de proteção social, nacional ou estrangeiro” (or another social protection system, domestic or foreign), provided the periods do not overlap. For the case it describes, that guide also says there can be no interruption of contributions longer than 6 months. It gives an example in which months worked in France count. Its list of countries whose contributions can be added up for this purpose includes the United Kingdom; its separate list of countries with agreements names Andorra, Brazil, Cape Verde, Morocco, Australia and Tunisia. It names the United States in neither. We have not read the rules behind these lists, so ask the Segurança Social how your US or UK record is treated. Foreign nationals count as residents if they hold a valid work visa or another valid residence title. Someone who does not meet the six months may be eligible for a social parental subsidy depending on means, which we did not read in detail.

What are the deadlines?

The gov.pt guide says you can start the leave before requesting the subsidy and, once you ask, you are paid for the days already taken. The request is made through Segurança Social Direta, which we did not open; the gov.pt service page we read does not describe the steps.

Are there other benefits?

The gov.pt guide on financial support says that from the 13th week of pregnancy a woman may be entitled to the prenatal family allowance (abono de família pré-natal), if she is resident in Portugal or treated as resident and her household income is at or below the third bracket; the pregnant woman applies herself, online or in person. The same guide lists IRS deductions per child; our first-year guide places this in the sequence of your first tax filing.

What did we read?

On 19 October 2026 we read the gov.pt guides on pregnancy follow-up, parental leave and subsidy, birth registration, absences from work and financial support; the gov.pt page to request the parental subsidy; the Segurança Social “Guia Prático Subsídio Parental Inicial”; the IRN pages on birth, registering a birth and Nascer Cidadão; the SNS portal page on pregnancy; the U.S. Embassy in Lisbon pages on citizenship services and fees; and the GOV.UK page on registering a birth abroad. We could not read travel.state.gov. We did not read the Segurança Social Direta service itself, the SNS 24 pregnancy guide, or the laws behind the benefits.