Giving birth in Italy

[AgruminoMum]

DP has a new job in Milan, Italy, so we will be moving there two months before my due date.. It is still not certain if his health insurance covers me (we are not married) or giving birth in general (if it does, we are probably going private). Not certain whether I will be eligible for the state care system (their equivalent of the NHS), although supposedly all EU citizens are eligible for state care in other EU states.
Meanwhile, NHS states that if I want to give birth in another EU country, I need to request a special form from them (S2 or E112).

Just wondering if any of you has been in a similar situation in Italy before, and what you know about their system... or any of you managed to convince NHS to produce the required form...

Any other advice about giving birth in Italy welcome as well! I already saw one OBGYN consultant there, and got mortified by his suggestion to sign immediately the approval forms for epidural (I want to attempt doing pain-free) and that all women want ELCS these days, and active birth does not exist... will be searching for a diffrent doctor, that much I know!

Thanks!

From what i've heard you need to pre-book epidurals in italy. Yiu cant change your mind during labour, like here.

There is no policy of active birth in Italy. The section rate is very very high. Over 65% in hospitals in middle part of Italy (can't remember where I saw stats).
All births are consultant led.
There is no gas and air.
Epidurals are not encouraged and do need to be pre booked.
If you have a choice, can you stay in Britain for the birth?
My friend gave birth there and did not have a good experience, however I am sure many others have had a good one. It just seems it is not set up to facilitate woman's choice in the way UK is.

Try posting on the Little Italy threads, I think they are in the Living Overseas topic. They will have good info, perhaps even for Milan area. I think there is a poster in Milan.

Hi Agrumino I had a very similar situation to you. Moved to Rome when was 7.5 months pregnant. You need to get an an EIHC card and an E112 form to cover giving birth - look here
You can get officially into the Italian health system when you get residency here but due to bureaucracy and the time it takes I would advise maybe doing it on an EIHC card and E112. Basically with that you can give birth by checking in to the hospital via their Pronto Soccorso (A&E) which is what I did. You can see consultants etc with your EIHC and E112. Best to come over and see us on the Little Italy thread as there are some Mums who have given birth more recently than me and there is also Franca who is Milan based. Have a look at Anglo Info as well.
Giving birth is generally more of a clinical procedure here. As was mentioned there is no Gas and Air. The only pain relief available is an epidural and you do have to book that in advance so they have someone on site to administer it and to ensure you have been checked. C sections are also high and I ended up having an emergency one after a long labour. On the positive side the pre-natal checks here are fantastic. They do far more indepth blood tests, heart checks, more regular scans and in the last few weeks of pregnancy you have at least twice weekly monitoring sessions which I loved! Half an hour hooked up to a machine listening to ds's heartbeat and reading a book. Best thing about being pregnant and having a new baby here - the attention! I lost track of how many comments of "what a lovely bump" (it wasn't - I was huuuge)I had from random strangers, was actively encouraged to skip supermarket queues, was offered numerous seats on the public transport and then from the moment ds was born he has been cooed over, petted and spoilt rotten by people wherever he goes. Lovely country
Good luck with everything.

Just wanted to add that things can be very different from one hospital to another here. The place where I gave birth in Rome was very pro-epidurals and had a low c-section rate. Do drop by Little Italy :)

Thank you everyone, that has been very helpful!

Add my 5 p worth - agree the blood tests and pre natal is much more in depth than the UK inc Streptococco. The postnatal ok a bit less but you have these great drop in clinics where they advise you on just about anything. I had to have a visit with the epidural lot so they had my details on file had one with dd1 ( too late for it to work) and nothing with dd2 . I had 2 positive experiences giving birth in Italy and Milan has some great hsopitals ...Franca lives there and I am sure she had both her dcs in Milan.