What does your plan pay for when you are pregnant?

What your plan pays for a pregnancy depends on the emirate that issued your visa.

What does your basic plan pay for in pregnancy and birth?

In Dubai and Abu Dhabi the basic plan pays for antenatal care and the delivery, and you pay a share. In the northern emirates the basic package pays nothing for maternity.

The Dubai column is the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) table of benefits, in force from 1 January 2025.¹ It is the minimum for any health insurance policy issued in Dubai, so a plan sold there to a woman who must have maternity cover cannot pay less.¹²

In Abu Dhabi a circular of 14 February 2025 requires the policy to include examination, diagnosis and treatment for pregnancy in centres and clinics, and hospital accommodation for births of all types.³ On 11 November 2026 Daman’s individual health insurance FAQ gave AED 20 for a doctor’s visit, AED 10 extra for a hospital specialist with a referral and AED 500 for a delivery, and the same amounts are in the Basic services schedule of the 2006 regulation.⁴⁵ The FAQ does not name the plan in each answer. Ask Daman to confirm the amounts for your policy before you book.

In the northern emirates both WHI tables of benefits mark maternity “Not Covered”,⁶⁷ and the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation says the same of pregnancy and childbirth.⁸ If your visa is from one of those five emirates and you need maternity cover, you need a different plan.

Find your column, then ask your insurer for your own table of benefits and compare the delivery limit. The other Dubai benefits are in the EBP, and the northern emirates package is in basic health insurance in the northern emirates.

Must your insurer give you maternity cover?

In Dubai, yes, if you are married when you enrol and able to have children. DHA’s policy says all such women to whom the health insurance law applies “must be covered at least to the extent of the limits specified” in the EBP table.²

The same policy says:²

• There is no set age limit. A qualified medical professional assesses whether a woman is able to have children.
• A woman who marries during the policy term must also be covered.
• “Maternity coverage shouldn’t be provided to female who were single or infertile at the time of enrollment.”

In Abu Dhabi, employers must provide cover that includes pregnancy and childbirth for the women they are obliged to insure, at subscription, at renewal or as soon as marital status changes. Where the employer is not responsible, the head of household is. A woman outside those cases may ask to add pregnancy and childbirth cover and pays the premium herself, from the date of pregnancy.³ Daman’s antenatal guideline says: “Antenatal services are not covered for unmarried females and for plans without maternity benefit.”⁹

Check the marital status your insurer holds for you, and tell it in writing if that has changed.

How long do you wait before maternity cover starts?

In Dubai the rules allow a wait of up to 9 months in two cases.²

• Low salary band worker, salary of AED 4,000 a month or less. A pregnancy confirmed after enrolment must be covered if you were enrolled with your employer’s other staff, as a recent hire, or at the employer’s enrolment deadline. If your sponsor enrols you at any other time, the insurer may apply a 9-month wait for maternity services.
• Non-working spouse. The insurer can choose to apply a 9-month wait.

For other workers the policy says only that the pregnancy is covered “provided that the terms and conditions apply”. It does not say whether a waiting period may be applied to them, so ask your insurer.²

During any maternity wait, the insurer must still cover medically necessary costs of an emergency up to the annual limit.²

In Abu Dhabi, Daman applies a six-month wait to inpatient treatment for all delivery cases. The wait does not apply if you had at least 6 months of unbroken cover under a plan approved by the Department of Health.¹⁰ On Daman’s enhanced plans an individual policyholder is subject to a 180-day wait for inpatient maternity cover if the schedule of benefits says so.¹¹

Ask your insurer for the date your maternity cover starts, in writing, and keep proof of any earlier policy.

What if you are already pregnant when you enrol?

In Dubai the insurer must still give you maternity cover if you are a worker, and it can price the pregnancy.²

Insurers’ medical declaration forms must ask whether you are pregnant, about any complications, the date of your last period, whether you are trying to get pregnant and whether you are having fertility treatment.²

If a pregnancy was not declared, on purpose or not, the insurer must let you choose between cover at the underwritten extra premium and a policy that excludes this pregnancy.²

In Abu Dhabi, where a married woman was enrolled as unmarried and a maternity claim arrives, the insurer must amend the policy to include pregnancy and childbirth from the date of enrolment or the date of marriage, whichever is first, and bill the party obliged to insure her.³

Declare the pregnancy on the application form and ask for the extra premium in writing before you accept the policy.

Can your insurer charge you more because you are pregnant?

In Dubai, yes. DHA’s policy says that when a pregnancy is verified before or at enrolment, “the insurer is required to charge the individual member any additional premium”.² If you become pregnant after enrolment, the insurer adjusts the premium for the risk, either for each woman able to have children or averaged across the women it insures.²

At renewal an insurer may raise a member’s premium by no more than 100% for each medically diagnosed condition. DHA’s own example is a member who becomes pregnant in month 10 of an AED 1,000 policy, whose renewal premium cannot exceed AED 2,000.¹² A circular of 3 July 2024 confirmed that the total increase may not exceed 100% of the previous premium however many conditions are diagnosed, and that this cap does not apply to low salary band members on the EBP.¹³

A woman who cannot have children and was charged a maternity premium must be refunded.²

In Abu Dhabi the Basic plan carries a compulsory maternity surcharge of AED 750 a year for married women aged 18 to 50, before VAT, in Daman’s 2026 premiums.¹⁴ The employer or head of household who must insure the woman pays the maternity premium and may not recover its share from her.³

In Dubai, Dubai National Insurance lists its EBP from AED 1,857 a year for a female spouse aged 18 to 45 and from AED 805 for another dependant aged 18 to 59, before patient support programme charges and VAT, as shown on 11 November 2026.¹⁵ The page does not say how much of the difference is for maternity.

Ask for the maternity part of your premium as a separate figure. More prices are in what health insurance costs.

Is your epidural covered?

The rules do not say. DHA’s table of benefits for the EBP lists the delivery limits and does not mention epidurals, anaesthesia or pain relief in labour.¹ DHA’s maternity policy and Daman’s policy wording for its enhanced plans in Abu Dhabi do not mention epidurals either.²¹¹

On the EBP every covered charge for the birth counts towards the AED 10,000 delivery limit, which includes your 10% share.¹ DHA’s standards say obstetric providers should run antenatal classes whose material covers “available options for pain relief during labour, with anaesthetic referral when needed e.g. epidural analgesia”.¹⁶ That standard is about what you are told, and it does not say who pays.

Is your newborn covered?

In Dubai, yes, for the first 30 days on the mother’s plan, whether or not the baby is later enrolled. From the 30th day the baby must have its own plan.¹ No insurer may apply a waiting period of any kind to a newborn.²

Start the baby’s enrolment in the first week. The steps, the documents and the Abu Dhabi rule are in health insurance for your dependants.

The small print

• The Dubai documents. The table of benefits is Appendix A to DHA circular GC 03/2024, dated 23 July 2024.¹ The maternity policy is numbered DHA/DHIC/HIE-PO-001, issued on 29 July 2022 and in force from 29 October 2022. DHA’s website files it as PD 01-2023.²
• Antenatal tests in Dubai. The first tests are a full blood count and platelets, blood group, Rhesus status and antibodies, VDRL, urine tests, rubella serology and HIV, with Hepatitis C and a glucose tolerance test for high-risk patients, and blood sugar tests for all. Low-risk care is by a primary healthcare obstetrician and high-risk referrals go to a specialist obstetrician.¹
• Extra premium at enrolment. The policy says the insurer “is required to charge” the extra premium, and its list of objectives says it confirms how insurers “may apply additional premiums”.²
• Abu Dhabi. The AED 500 payment per delivery and the visit fees are in Schedule 1 of the implementing regulation of Law No. 23 of 2005, issued in 2006. Circular 2025/15 says the policy must cover the services in that schedule as a minimum.⁵³ Where a married woman was not enrolled for maternity, the obliged party pays for services given before enrolment at the prices for uninsured patients, plus the administrative fine.³