post natal care in France

[tigerbump]

calling on all you mums who have had babies in France. what were your experiences of post natal care? i've been told once I leave the hospital thats it and any problems I call the local Dr's. So in short no health visitor. just wondering when Dr's normally do checkups on babies over in France.

[AuldAlliance]

No HV.
The PMI often call and ask if you need a visit, depending on policy in your area.
Baby: check up at 2wks and then monthly.
You: check up at 6wks. Then physio for pelvic floor, about 10 sessions.
I also had a BF appt at 1wk, but my hospital is unusually supportive of BF.
It is a bit isolating, as far as I can gather the UK system involves more regular contact with medical staff.
sorry, one-handed typing again!

[BriocheDoree]

You also usually stay in hospital for much longer - UK I was in for 3 days (and that was after a section). France had a normal delivery and was still in for SIX DAYS (still shudder at the recollection, but prob. not so bad if it's your first!).
If you you're into BF'ing and attachment parenting (silly name) La Lèche League have groups in Ile de France.

[AuldAlliance]

Here it's 3 days for normal birth; practice varies from place to place I suppose...

[tigerbump]

have located my nearest PMI which is great. the hospital stay here can be up to 7 days i've been told depending on my recovery - but this is also my first which apparently makes a difference for my hospital.

[Othersideofthechannel]

Tigerbump, it really freaked me out when I asked about the equivalent of health visitors and my gynae said something dismissive like 'my job is to deliver the baby and make sure the mum is well, that's it.'

For someone who didn't have much of a clue about newborns, the long stay in hospital was very useful.

On the first day for a first time mum, they do the whole baby care routine as a spectator and then on the second day you do it with them watching. Then they leave you to get on with it but they are on call if you have any problems. They don't like let you leave until baby's birthweight is going back up and feeding is established. So I did feel like I knew what I was doing when I left.

Good job too because PMI didn't call me to do a home visit until baby was 10 weeks old.

HTH

[Weta]

I know I've replied to you before but can't remember what I said - have moved country in the meantime (!) so apologies if I repeat myself!!

I did most of my pre-birth care with a private midwife (funded by social security) and a few visits to the gynaecologist. Hospital stay was 4 nights (second baby, no real problems although he was under the eye of intensive care for the first 24 hours). After that my midwife visited me a few times in the first week or so, and then I could go to the PMI for any help, although I didn't do that.

There seemed to be an awful lot of paediatrician visits, one a month till about 6 or 9 months I think.

Oh and also the pelvic floor sessions, which I opted to do with a midwife rather than a physiotherapist.

I would totally recommend the midwife avenue for pre-birth care as I found them so supportive both before and after the birth. Mine were home-birth ones (something I considered but later decided against), which may make a difference, but friends have also been to regular midwives and found them very good.

[thirtysomething]

I had DS in France - thought antenatal care and postnatal whilst in hospital excellent but found it very unsupportive after I left hospital.

I was advised to register DS with a paedeatrician which I did - she was more of a GP for babies than a hospital consultant if you get what I mean, and she was fab - would always see him quickly. For me it was a different story - I had huge problems breastfeeding and felt totally alone as my own GP suggested I should switch to bottles if I found it hard! I had mastitis and ended up begging the GP to have a look (as she really didn't think it necessary!) so I could get some antibiotics. With hindsight I realise I should have read up more about breastfeeding beforehand as that's the area where the support network really isn't there. I wasn't offered any postnatal exercise classes or anything like that.

[thirtysomething]

I never had a visit or call from the PMI, but I did have a long hospital stay - over a week - mainly because DS was early and I'd had bllod pressure problems. Where in France are you tiger?

[Weta]

Just to add about the breastfeeding - La Leche League do have support groups in various places in France, and where I was there was also another group. I've always found them a bit too dogmatic somehow (did go along to one meeting pre-birth and also had been to one in NZ), but it was good to know they were there