Pregnant in Italy, more paperwork than baby talk. Anyone else out there?

[ExpatMamaToBe]

First pregnancy and we found out a week ago. No clue what to do. Waited a few days to make sure and then went to ASL (Azienda Sanitaria Locale) to register with a GP. One kilo of paper later, they eventually put us on the system.

It was too late to call and make an appointment (you can only call between 8 and 10am) so I sent an email to the GP and received a reply yesterday afternoon. He invited us to meet his assistant this morning (Mon), deal with her with some paperwork and he also set an appointment with him for Wed at 8am.

Off we went this morning. We both had to sign privacy statements and then got a stamped referral for urine test at the hospital. The assistant said that it would take more or less 4 days to get the results back and invited us to pop in next week when we've got them. I asked if - in this case - the meeting on Wed was still going to happen; she double checked with the doctor, cancelled it and tipp-exed us out of the diary. Right...

She also said that if the result is positive, the GP is going to give us another paper which we have to take back to ASL and over there we're going to receive an itinerary of tests, scans etc. I asked when they usually do the first scan; she said 'in fifth month'. This cannot be right, can it?

In the meantime, the doctor walked out, saw us and - even though we exchanged several emails yesterday - all we got was "ciao". Whatever.

So we went to the hospital to wee on demand (I was more than ready). Didn't get that far though. Had to take a ticket and managed to cause a dispute between two guys at the reception whether it should be ticket "A" or "C" ("A" won). Then queued to receive a sample tube and register for bringing it back tomorrow morning. And tomorrow I'll have to take another ticket ("H"), go to the cash desk, pay and then I'll be able to drop off the sample.

Hope that as soon as I've got that itinerary in my hand, it's all going to be more straight forward. And I do wonder if I'm going to need a ticket to give birth.

[RillaBlythe]

Hello. Congrats on your pregnancy. Just wanted to suggest you reposted in the Living Overseas board - might be some expats living in Italy!

[ExpatMamaToBe]

Thanks so much Rilla, I looked at the 'local sites' earlier but didn't find the 'overseas' bit. Have just posted, let's see.. Thanks again!