To give birth: travel back to home country? or stay in foreign country where i actually live?

[Parisbluecat]

Hi all,
I have lived in Germany for several years with my partner (we speak some German but not perfect). Both of us are expats and our families live in different countries.
We are currently expecting our first child and I´m struggling to decide:

• Travel back to my home country (Spain) to give birth. Pros: hospital staff will speak my language. More convenient for my family. Cons: I will have to stay in a pretty small holiday apartment (40 sqm) which is not my permanent home, with my newborn, until I can fly back to Germany, which might take several weeks (until the baby´s paperwork is issued, etc).
• Stay in Germany. Cons: I will be far from my family, might have language problems at hospital (and before), less familiar environment, admin more difficult. Pros: I will be able to stay in my own home, with the household items I´m used to, and there will be my friends (I dont have any close friends my age in my home country).

Does anybody have perspectives, advice, guidance? Did any of you go through this?
Thank you!!

What is your nationality? Does where you give birth make a difference to the nationality of the child. I know for example that you cannot have double nationality in Spain.

If it makes a difference and you are planning to stay permanently in Germany then it will make your DCs life easier to give birth there.

Could be you have a bilingual doula help you during labour so that you can have the baby in Germany?

Hi there. I live in the UK with DH but we are South Asian. When I was pregnant with both DDs I decided to fly back and stay with my close family as I had the following points in mind

1. Not many friends to help me here.
2. In case of DD1 I was inexperienced as she was my first born and I wanted my family's help.
3. DH worked 5days 9-5 and was very very busy as he was setting up his dream career I couldn't really count on him at that time. He's a hands on dad though!
4. I am prone to mild PnD as I miss my family so I decided both babies will be born in my native country.
5. When pregnant with DD2 I had severe SPD and the pain was bad I again could count on my parents to help me with my hyperactive toddler.
6. Compared to the UK medical facilities in my native country are easily available we don't need appointments there. I had some postpartum issues which were promptly looked after.
7. The weather was really good with all the sunshine my blues just flew .
8. My parents home is small as well but the love my babies received was immense and all the help I received I'm really grateful for.

I gave birth in Germany and went with only a list of medical words because I wasn't confident that I'd be able to express myself while in labour. I had a great experience compared to my NHS births and was very grateful that the Polish midwives at my hospital spoke excellent English.

As for admin- it's Germany so they love it but I don't recall that much hassle? ( It took longer registering as residents at the local Rathaus than getting a birth certificate)

I´m from Spain. The dad has a different nationality. So we´d like the child to have both. However, I understand that this is not a problem in Germany - the rules seem so complicated though, so I´ll triple check!

Thats such a good idea! Thank you so much

Those are really great points @toddlercoaster , thank you for sharing. Even if my circumstances are different, i think all those are aspects very important to consider.
For instance, my mother is a very difficult person with a very volatile character, who more or less refuses to speak to my partner/acknowledge his existence. So, more than help, I feel it would be the contrary!
I am blessed with good friends here, including several new moms, and my partner would be taking parental leave to be by my side and the babys throughout. So these aspects make me tip towards staying here.

I can very much relate to the sunshine though...

Thanks so much for the insight, @PeekAtYou ! Knowing this is really encouraging...

I understand your concerns. I'm from Scotland and have given birth in Germany twice (summer 2020 and 3 weeks ago). Both my experiences were very good, health care is fantastic here and I felt well looked after. But my German is also fluent so I didn't have to worry about that.

If you have any specific questions, feel free to message me :)

Ohhh thank you so much @Doowop1919 !! I actually might. Really grateful.