neve

hi. i'm new to this forum.

i've been living in barcelona for several years but haven't had any dealings with doctors or hosptials the whole time. i'm now 8 weeks pregnant and trying to decide whether to have the baby here in or the uk.

i've read through a couple of similar threads on this site but wondered if anyone could give me any more information on what it's like having a baby here.

i'm also thinking about taking out private health insurance, such as with sanitas. does anyone have any experience to share on health insurance companies in spain?

thanks a lot. neve.

coralsoft

We've had 2 babies in Spain (and we'd had 3 in the UK beforehand, so we can do the comparison!). At 8 weeks pregnant, you are probably too late to go on Sanitas, since it's pre-existing, but give it a go, just in case. They were very good for the rest of the family when they were in the scheme and are still good for me.

In my view, the Spanish maternity process is about 10 years behind the UK in terms of focus on the mother. Many staff still have an attitude that's a hangover from the days when childbirth was still hugely risky and medical staff felt they needed to be interventionist to be in control and maximise the chances of a successful birth. These days in the UK, the emphasis is very much on looking after the mother and letting her choices and nature take their course, confident in the ability of the medical system to step in and deal with problems. After 2 home births in the UK, and 1 hospital birth, all with TENS, gas/air mix and pools for pain relief and no snips, we knew what the score was.

Our first Spanish birth was under Sanitas. My wife could find no-one prepared to consider home births, there was a UK midwife somewhere around Madrid that had experience of gas/air, no-one could provide TENS or pool facilities. All very dismissive of her wishes, unless she wanted to join the popular caesarian club. We visited a natural birth clinic south of Valencia, which looked good, but, given the timing, could not think of a way of arranging it from Madrid (but see later ) . After bouncing around getting checks in various places on the day my wife walked up the road to the hospital while I stayed at home to look after the other 3 in bed. She was fully dilated on arrival and the medical staff freaked! They were no longer in control, but they still forced her into stirrups for the birth itself. There was no time for drugs and they were giving ridiculous advice about when to push, as if they'd never even been to an ante-natal class. Still, despite being upset, all worked out well and there was a nice room for wife and baby for a few days. The facilities were very good, it being a good Sanitas hospital, but the experience was definitely the worse for medical attitudes being old-fashioned.

One humourous moment came as the 3 siblings were bouncing around the room and a nurse, come to bathe the baby, advised me to watch and learn. Hello?? These 3 are mine - I think I know what to do.

For the 5th, we were undecided right up to the end, but my wife was keen on the natural birth clinic, if only we could plan it. Being so far away, staying out their for a long time, away from work was not an option, and, IMO, nor was driving down there for 4 hours with the risk of having to deliver at the side of the motorway :scared:

Bizarrely, it worked out: on Friday, my wife called me at work, we dumped older children with friends and took Nr 4 with us to a guest house near the clinic on Friday afternoon. After a visit to the clinic, we retired, then next day took a drive around the area and a couple of walks. After a walk round, my wife went into the clinic while I played in the garden with Nr 4. After a while, the gyneacologist came out to let us know the result: a 2nd daughter, and we went in. The place, the staff and the treatment were all spot on and after < 24 hours, to the amazement of some other new parents at the clinic, we were able to drive all the way back to Madrid and meet the rest of the family on Sunday afternoon. 52 hours and 900 kms altogether!

We had considered returning to the UK for the births, but the hassle of travelling and taking children out of school made this impractical. Thankfully, the Spanish systems are catching up fast and your local setup may be better than hours. We've friends in Barcelona that have had 2 children there, and we've not heard horror stories.

Read some books for background, to give yourself confidence in talking to the medical staff and to find out the option that you might prefer. There are a lot of people that go for the drugs and intervention, but both can make recovery a lot longer.

The whole childbirth 'industry' exists in parallel to, and almost hidden from, the non-child world, so you may find a lot of things around that you never knew existed.

And good luck, whatever you decide.

Cheers,
coralsoft

neve

Hi,

Sorry I've taken a while to reply to this.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to give me such a detailed reply. It's really helpful.

I'd love to know the name of the natural birth clinic in Valencia. It sounds like a nice option.

Thanks again, Neve

coralsoft

It's the Aquario Group hospital in Beniarbeig
http://www.acuario.org/in/maternidad.asp

They are very friendly and can no doubt show you round if you arrange a visit. It cost just over €1000 for the birth with pool & 1 night's stay.

There's an allegedly excellent curry house in the next village towards the coast and my wife was gutted that we weren't able to get a takeaway on our way back to Madrid, because they weren't open on the Sunday lunchtime.

neve

Thanks a lot! We have some friends in Valencia so we're planning to check it out when we visit them next month.

By the way, there seems to be a couple of options for a more natural birth here in Barcelona which I'm also going to check out. For future reference if anyone's interested the info can be found here: http://www.extraguide.de/index.php?m...itle=&meid=251

Thanks again for your help.

Neve