Saudi

[Geeza]

Hello
I am 19 weeks pregnant and my husband has been offered a job in Jeddah, I shall hopefully move there in August(He will go in early July), but am a little nervous about maternity care there. Does anyone have any advise/tips? Thank You

I worked for Aramco in Saudi and the hospital I worked at, the maternity was staffed by nearly all western nurses. It was doctor lead though as it was an American based hospital.
Good luck. I suspect you will be fine.

Thank you for the reassurance....I need it

Hi there,

This might help you. At least you could register and ask some questions about Saudi.
www.expatwoman.com/forum/messages.aspx?TopicID=148826

Dont forget this year Ramadan will be almost all of August, so no eating or drinking in public. Imperative you get an American hospital. Quality of care in the the western hospitals is excellent.

Good luck

I know there is a MNer on here who lives in Saudi. The healthcare is good in western hospitals. The thing that would concern me is the lack of freedom for women. In fact, complete absence. You won't be able to drive and check out the situation regarding visas for visitors. We lived in Oman which is next door and tried to get a visa. We were rejected. We onlywanted to drive through the country.

That will be me! I live in Riyadh and have lived her for over 5 years.
DC3 and 4 were born here and the healthcare was excellent. I had CS for both and the doctors and nurses were wonderful. Only thing that annoyed me was the nursery nurses wanted to keep stealing my babies to put in the nursery. They couldn't comprehend that I might actually want my babies with me!

Make sure you check out your husband's company will cover all your healthcare etc and in particular, find out in advance the process for getting baby's birth certificate. At the hospital in Riyadh we had to get a birth notification in arabic then get it translated then apply for british birth certificate from Embassy. We then got both DC's passports here but I know in Riyadh it has now changed and they don't issue passports in Kingdom anymore and the Embassy had to apply to Germany to get them. You might want to check that out.

Don't worry too much about the rules ref fasting during ramadam, as a pregnant woman/nursing mother you are exempt.

Not been to Jeddah but everyone I know who has say it is much more relaxed than Riyadh. You will still (I think) need to wear an abaya but its apparently nicer there (and great diving too!) It is correct about the driving, us mere females cannot drive and of course no pork or alchol although the home made is sometimes passable.

Quite a few of my friends here have got family out on visits at the moment so hopefully it won't be a problem for you.
Any questions, please don't hesitate to ask

Thank you all for the advice....this was my first Mumsnet post and I am so impressed with the support,thank you.

Hi,have lived next door in Bahrain most of my life.Tbh would try to postpone the move till September if I was you.I still find Ramadan hard,and always harder for all when high summer.Driving here bad at best times,life in own hands during Ramadan.I plan to go away for all August,most Expats do.Anyway will be silly hot.Saudi takes a level of adjustment at best of times,i think Ramadan would be v hard,even if your muslim.
Also agree with baby,nursery thing.Had to fight to keep them in my room.Having said that my first was born in Southampton.Other 2 here in Bahrain.No comparison.Bahrain any day.