Has anybody had a baby in France?

[lummox]

Am just wondering how the antenatal care works, and whether I'd rather just go back to the UK every now and then for midwife/scans and so on.

Does anyone here have any experience of this?

[UglySister]

Had a baby abroad before and it was a great service. As in France you will see a gynocologist/obstetrician for each appointment and they may well have more time for you than the midwife would. I had monthly checks, including an internal examination and ultrasound, and you never get that in the UK on a routine basis. This also means that in case of any problems you will have to see a doctor in France who is not familiar with your case at a very stressful time for you. If you speak good French I wouldn´t hesitate for a minute to have your check-ups in France. Bear in mind you will not be able to fly as your date of arrival approaches and consider if you want to have the baby on a ferry ; ) Good luck! See what other people think!

[cupcakes]

my mum had a baby in France (me!) but that was over 30 years ago...

[dOng]

Hiya Lummox

I had a baby in France and found the care superb, my dh got to stay the first few nights with us, there was wine on the menu and everything apart from the delivery was 10/10. The birth itself was a bit vile, but tis my only complaint - and God knows how it would have been in the UK....

Having the baby in France is much simpler than going abroad and then coming back and doing the nightmare "getting into the system" paperwork.

[Frenchgirl]

I had dd in the UK because that's where I lived, so I think if you live in France you should have your baby there, the french health service is v good and I think the pregnancy care is excellent (from friends/sil experience)
no doubt someone will come along to say it's over-medicalised though...
how's your french?

[lummox]

Hi all. Thanks for the replies.

Frenchgirl, my French is good conversational, but I'm going to have to do a crash course in pregnancy vocabulary! I'm not so worried aout the language provided everything goes OK, but when I'm feeling paranoid and worrying that something might go wrong I do worry that I might miss something if I was anxious.

I think it's the over medicalised thing that is mostly concerning me. I had ds in a touchy feely birth centre in the UK and that suited us quite well - from talking to people locally, the French system seems to be the opposite.

dOng - do you have any thoughts on that?

Uglysister - Hopefully not too much chance of the baby arriving on the ferry. We'd head back to blighty a good few weeks before the birth.

Should have said that this is only viable because we live close to Calais, so Folkestone isn't much further than the nearest hospital. Also we both still work in London sometimes, so are in the UK quite a lot and could prob arrange ante-natal care quite easily.

cupcakes - the French system clearly creates superior babies then

[thirtysomething]

I had a baby in France, it was soooo much better than the experience I had here! They were lovely throughout the birth, kept me completely informed and involved, listened to my wishes etc - total opposite of barbaric treatment I got in the UK! The only part I didn't like was the antenatal course - very basic and no chance to meet any other first-time mums really as we only had 2 sessions and different women came to each one. The monthly check-ups with the ob/gyn were very thorough and I felt totally reassured that they were monitoring everything. I don't think they plugged breastfeding quite as much as they do in the UK and I did experience problems with feeding but it was probably more to do with a fractious baby! You do need a decent level of French though, unless you are able to register at an international hospital. Whereabouts in France are you? I ended up with a British ob/gyn for my check-ups and an Irish midwife in the delivery room so no problems there!

[Nightynight]

lummox - I had dd2 in France. My best tip is, get recommendations for which is your best local hospital, and if you don't like it, change to another one.
There were 2 in our area. One was very sterile, "Dr knows best", male consultant led. The other one was pink decor, midwife led. I immediately felt at home there, and had a great experience. I had previously registered at the first one, but changed because I was so unhappy. Food was fab, btw.

I had 3 babies in UK without having a single vagina examination (dont know what its called) during pregnancy. But in France, every blasted medic wanted a look, at every opportunity! I refused point blank to have this examination from male consultants. And guess what, each time, they reacted in a huff, not like professional doctors, but like - er, MEN who have been turned down, actually! ("But I am a docteur! No woman has ever refused!" "Oh yeah?") So I dont feel any regret about refusing this totally unnecessary examination.

I dont know what the breast-feeding support would have been like, or help with other care because I was an experienced mother so they left me alone. there are small differences in how they deal with the cord, and stuff like that.

[lummox]

Thank you all so much for replying. Really helpful to hear about other experiences.

I'm still being a bit dithery and haven't made my mind up, but have started asking around about the local options. That is interesting but I think the people I've spoken to (we live in a small village) are quite pro-formal medical stuff.

This is my second so I'm not too worried about breastfeeding support - (it's not as if the British hopital where I had ds was particularly good and I ended up getting most help from the La Leche folk anyway).

I do have the impression that people are less keen on breastfeeding here. When I took my ds for his jabs the French doctor told me that my milk must be too rich because ds was too tall and too heavy.

Was v nice and gentle with the jab though.

Nightynight - interesting about the internals (is that what they are called?). It's funny how something that one country regards as vital can be completely stopped in another. Have to say that makes me veer towards having the baby in the UK because I'm not sure I'll have the energy to refuse.

thirtysomething - we're in the very far north (that's why it's viable to go back to the UK - we are only forty minutes from Calais). Is that anywhere near where you were? How would I go about finding an international hospital?

[Nightynight]

lol lummox - are you planning to hop on the ferry when contractions begin?
careful you dont end up with a baby Norfolk Line Lummox....

my hosp was 40 minutes drive away, we only just made it for dd2.

[UglySister]

Hi, just wanted to say that a regular internal (definitely in the last trimester) is a useful thing. I had one that showed the cervix was opening so was in hospital pdq to give the baby the steroids in case he was going to be born early. Fortunately bedrest kept baby in the womb longer!

[lummox]

lol Nightynight - do you not think stena is a lovely name for a girl?

if we decide to have the baby in the UK we will probably rent there for six months. we both work in London part time anyway so it would be quite convenient in some ways.

ds was two weeks early and I don't fancy an emergency trip.

althought i have wondered whether the baby might get free trips on eurotunnel for life or something if it was born under the channel

US - I'm sure you're right but I still haet the thought of it.

[ggglimpopo]

Given the choice again (and with five already - no sireeeee), I would have my baby here.

You get to choose your consultant
You get to choose your hospital
You get to stay in as long as you like and if you choose well, your partner gets to stay with you
You get wine with food
You get to see your consultant/midwife when you like and can ring and speak to them direct if you are worried
You can have as many or as few scans as you wish
You can say NOOOOOOO to stirrups (dark ages) and ditto internals.

Do not do as I did, and choose the best looking (actually rather sexy) consultant. This was an error.

Paperwork much easier if baby born here.

[lotussister]

I'm having my baby in France in December and I must say I did dither for quite a while. In the end decided to have it here as wouldn't want to have to stay for as long as I would have to in the UK (I'm in the south, so would have to fly over). However, everything I saw in practically all the hospitals round here had me wanting to run back home in a panic! I'm talking standard episiotomies for first time mothers and overall rates at around 70%, websites saying the hospital is really advanced because you don't have to lie on your side with your legs in stirrups, (they will allow you to lie on your side some of the time)

In the end I found an independent midwife who will do home births (which are viewed as the ultimate horror in France - the official line is that you should NOT have your baby at home because it's risky - evidence be damned!). TBH I would have preferred a midwife-led unit but there just isn't one of those within an hour and a half of me.

My midwife is doing all my antenatal care (9 appointments between months 3 and 9). She has agreed that she will only do internal exams when we agree they may be useful and has accepted (if I write her a letter saying that I take responsability for the risk) that I don't have to have blood tests done every month.

If I had gone for a hospital I would have had a vaginal exam and blood tests imposed on me every month from the third month onwards, and even more frequently for the last couple of months, and would probably been seen by an ob/gyn not a midwife (I prefer to have my antenatal care done by the person who will be there during the delivery).

If your french is decent, there are quite a few organisations which support less medicalised births and which I found incredibly helpful in finding better alternatives. Whenever I mentioned I was English and was a bit shocked at the medicalisation of birth round here they always said 'ah, but
England is so far ahead of us on this....'

I think it is possible to have the birth you want over here, you just have to do a lot more work to find the means to do it than you would in the UK.

Sorry for the long post, hth.

[nedzer]

hi,
anyone pregnant in the versailles area? im looking for antenatal classes in english and cant find any. does anyone have any ideas? thanks x

[lummox]

hi nedzer.

sorry to say I don't have any ideas about English language ante-natal classes, but just wanted to say that this is an old thread, and people probably won't look on it much.

you might have more luck if you start a new thread in the 'Living Overseas' section specifically about ante-natal care near Versailles.

good luck!

[autumnlover]

I had my second baby in paris in 2005 and its was fine. i speak no french whatsoever and had a wonderful midwife from brussels.
i decided that i couldn't be do with jumping on the eurostar, whilst in labour. Also if i went back to the uk before the baby, it was just too much to think about. and then i would need to stay at least 3 weeks in order to get baby passport before i could take him/her back to france. it was all a bit too much to think about whilst pregnant. also second labours can be quite quick - mine was only 7 hrs from waters breaking and baby arriving.

nedzer - have you heard of 'Message' - organisation similar to the NCT but for Paris and surrounding areas. i did an ante-natal class with them and it was great. it
was only 1 day event.

I have some where a list of french birthing terms translated into english - its about 6 pages. let me know if anyone is interested and i'll do a search. i also have the Message book about bring up kids in paris is also interested.

hope this helps.

[Beaufield]

Autumnlover,

If you still have that ist of birthing terms in french I would really appreciate it.

Also, can you give me any details or websites to check out about how to register the birth and what paperwork is involved. I am still in the UK at the moment but heading to Nice in March (baby due in May).

[Othersideofthechannel]

The birth has to be registered in the first two working days at the Mairie of the town where the child is born.
The hospital sorted it out for us but we already had a 'livret de famille'. The registrar noted down the births in this book and gave us a few birth certs.
I don't know if the 'livret de famille' is essential and if you would need to obtain it before the birth.

[Othersideofthechannel]

We just gave the 'livret de famille' to the hospital staff along with our chosen name written out clearly and they passed it on to the mairie and then returned it to us later that day.

[BriocheDoree]

Hi Nedzer, definitely get in touch with Message (www.messageparis.org) as I ran their antenatal register for a short while and there were definitely some English speaking practitioners in Versailles. Alternatively, get in touch with Dr Artault at the English medical center (www.englishmedicalcenter.fr). He's in Saint Germain en Laye but he was my GP for my pregnancy and he tried to send me to Versailles to give birth as he knew an English gyny there. In the end I chose to give birth more locally as I speak fluent French.
Lummox, you are not obliged to be followed by an obstetrician if you don't want all the internals. I chose a GP instead and hospital midwife appointments from 7 months as it was my second so didn't have a single internal until I was actually in labour!
I had really good antenatal appts with a sage femme liberale who was v. pro breastfeeding so I guess I was lucky. I think breastfeeding support depends on the hospital. Mine was only local public one but was brilliant throughout, including letting me do normal delivery post caesarian which the private clinic wouldn't. However I was able to ask around friends locally as to where to give birth and I think you might need to "shop around".
If you are covered by SECU, you need to inform them that you are pregnant before 14 weeks. Your doctor / gyny will give you the correct form.

[BriocheDoree]

Oops, just noticed most of these threads are years old...