Newly pregnant in Spain......advice please

[macaco]

Hi. I've just tested positive (period was late). WHat do I do now? Do I have to see the doctor straight away? I'm only about 4 weeks gone so I don't know if there's anything they'll do anyway is there? I've been taking folic acid since we started ttc.

Well we wouldn´t have pierced our baby´s ears if it was a girl but family here has, I accept it´s a cultural thing and don´t have an opinion on what anyone else does, but personally wouldn´t have wanted to do it. Not aaaalllll baby girls here have it done so although people might ask you wouldn´t be seen as a freak for not doing it Which is great, you can choose whatever you want to do!

It´s very common here to find out the sex of your baby, at least where we are, and people don´t really seem to understand why you wouldn´t.. same for giving them a name..

The vaccination schedule I have is..

2 months - Tetanus, Diptheria, Whooping Cough, Hep. B., Haem. Inf. b, Polio I, II, III (1 injection), Meningitis C (1 injection)
4 months - Same as first injection above
6 months - Same two injections as for 2 months
15 months - MMR
18 months - Same two injections as for 2 months
Then nothing til 6 years old.

Hope that helps Maybe the easiest thing would be to delay any jabs until you get here and start the programme from scratch in Spain? I know several parents here who have delayed the first jabs for a couple of months so don´t see why you couldn´t.

Por cierto.. my husband is demanding to know why you want to move back to Spain (he is fervently in favour of a move in the other direction!)!

Thanks for the tip on the ear piercing

Really appreciate the help on the vaccinations thanks. Good advice to wait but just to complicate matters further, we have a family holiday to the British Virgin Islands with my whole family booked for mid April and whilst I hope that I?ll be breast feeding and that the baby will get some immunity from me, I?d like to make sure it?s had what it can just to give it the best protection. Interesting that there is Hep B included in that combo jab which isn?t here. I?ll need to think about this some more Don?t know when we?ll be moving exactly ? could be before that holiday.

I never used to think I?d want to move back but I really do now. I just feel that the pace of life is better suited to my personality. I get stressed by my high powered job here and I hate going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark in the Winter and the fact that Winter lasts so long, I hate the cold and the fact that people are generally so serious. I miss the sun and the beach and my family and the thought of nursery costs and working long hours here really gets me down. Plus, my Dad needs help running the business and DH wants to do that ? I don?t know, I just think we have to give it a go. Why does your DH want to move back, I am interested to know?

lovely holiday planned! very envious indeed..

Dh just loves britain, he hates hot weather and is much more suited to the british climate. Mallorca is small and everyone knows everyone and things to do are very limited, we went to london for 6 months and he loved it so much. He also wants our ds to live in the UK for a while. I´m just not sure, in a way I´d like to as my sisters live there (my parents live here) but our quality of life here is really good and I´m worried we´d struggle financially living in the UK. We´ll see..

Stay in touch, would be great to here how you get on with the move. Same for you macaco, let us know how you get on

HI, I'm in Barcelona and am 27 weeks pregnant with no.2.

I had my first in London, so it's been interesting to see how the diifferent systems work.

I had a booking in appointment with a midwife at 8 weeks, and first scan at 12 weeks. It was internal, and was just fine. I also had an early internal scan in London so knew what to expect.

I think antenatal care here in Barcelona is better than in London... it's certainly more thorough.

I have appointments every 4 weeks, alternating with the gynaecologist and midwife. Here in Catalonia you get 3 scans.. 12 weeks (nuchal fold scan), 20 weeks and 36 weeks. I have detailed blood screenings every trimester.. only had one set of blood tests in London.

Re. Ear piercing. DD1 was born in London, she doesn't have her ears pierced, and it's just not an issue. Some people have commented, but that's it.

DD had most of her vaccinations in London, the only difference was the hep B, which wasn't given in London, so she had too have that when we moved here.

I'm not really looking forward to the birth as I had a waterbirth in London in a lovely birthing centre with soft lighting and chill out music. Here they are very much into shaving, enemas, epesiotomies, epidurals and the lark. A doula would be a good idea. There is one hospital in BCN that has a natural birth team, which is where I will be going.

If you speak Spanish, a good website is www.elpartoesnuestro.com - it has examples of birth plans.

I think standards of care vary between regions, but I'm sure you'll be fine!

Good luck with your pregnancy.

Maveta ? the holiday will be amazing but I hate to think what I?ll look like!

I have loved my UK experience, especially when I was in my early 20s without a care, there is a lot to do and I would never have met the people I have on the Costa so I can see your DH?s perspective too. I really hope my kids have some experience of the UK too, especially of Scotland where we are. We are planning to keep a flat here and my dream is that my kids might come back here for Uni or at least a part of it for the experience. Quality of life is a big thing, DH and I both work full time and have good salaries but we still have money worries and are always skint. So much of life is on credit in the UK and I am looking forward to that all being simplified in Spain (my Mum still doesn?t even have a Bank account! She has been getting her housekeeping and her salary from my Dad in cash for 20 years!) I know we?ll earn a hell of a lot less (which worries me a bit as if we don?t sell up soon, we?ll be taking some debt with us which will be hard to service from there) but I think we will have a much better life overall

Would love to keep in touch and with you Macaco

Hi Macaco - just saw this - been away for 3 weeks! I had both my boys in Seville! I've also just moved from the Costa del Sol back to Seville so if I can be of any help let me know!

Hi Maveta and MrsMcJnr. I have to say that in Seville ear piercing is de rigeur for little girls and you are a freak if you don't have it done. My friend had a baby 3 years ago and was always being asked ¿como se llama el niño? Once even, we were in a shopping centre and the baby was dressed in a PINK DRESS and a woman asked..if it was a boy! When my friend said that, no it was a girl and that's why she was in PINK the woman looked shocked and said, "but she hasn't got pierced ears." I kid you not. I think perhaps other areas are less traditional.

Hi costamum, whereabouts in Seville are you? Did you have yours in Virgen de Rocio? What brings you back to lovely Seville? You know what they say..sevilla qué maravilla

Hello Costamum ? I wanna be one of you! hello.

Macaco ? I suspect that the attitude re pierced ears would be the same in my village. When I was little, I wasn?t allowed my ears pierced until I was 10 and I was so envious of all the Spanish girls ? even the dolls had pierced ears mind you, all the locals think we Brits do everything wrong any way; we drive on the wrong side of the road, we let our kids go to bed early so they wake us up early in the morning, we change our names when we get married so no one knows who are parents are anymore, we wear our wedding rings on the wrong hand and don?t have a part to play for our godparents in our weddings ? in all, very odd! hoping to have this LO christened in the same church we got married in but suspect it would have to be born in Spain to be entered in our Libro de Familia ? anyone know?!

I don't know actually. You, like me got married here, no? So you have a libro de familia. I don't know whether at some point your child is put in it. Obviously any further children would be. Just out of interest, did you have to do a lot of paperwork to have your marriage recognised in Britain?
If i have a girl there's no way she's having her ears pierced til she's old enough to look after them herself. I got loads of infections and problems with them being taken out when I had mine done at about 9

No, not at all actually but then the paperwork beforehand was a nightmare and we had to get the banns read here etc. We registered our marriage with the Bristish Consulate I seem to remember - it was only last year, why can't I remember? - pregnancy brain

Good point about the ear infections - especially with sand and swimming.

Did you have a church wedding? I can imagine it was complicated. We had a civil wedding and even though we were both here the paperwork was quite hefty. We ended up having quite a Spanish wedding really, no speeches, free bar and the groom's padrino made the toast.

Your wedding sounds lovely yes, ours was a church wedding and it was a complete combo of Scots and Spanish traditions we even had a piper and a lovely Andalucian carriage with 2 white horses - we had a ball! The co-ordinator at the hotel loved all our Scottish bits and pieces and all the decorations we brought with us, she had honeymooned in Scotland

Mine was a civil wedding and was very Spanish in terms of no speeches etc, although due to celtic heritage I too had an irish piper and kilts present. That mixed very well with the Sevillanas dancing in fact!

Costamum are you out there? Tell me more about yourself and I'd love to know how you found ante natal care and birth in Seville. I'll be going to Virgen del rocio, is that where you had yours?

snap to the kilts have a wedding photo on my profile if you want a peak

Hi there Mrs McJnr and Macao - since I've been back in Seville things have been pretty busy!!

I had both the boys in the Hopital Virgen Macarena which is really close to where we are living now actually. For my first (and second) pregnancy the antenatal care was pretty good but I've got to say that I got to see a doctor at all my check ups because he was a friend of my father in law! So cheating slightly because I believe usually you get to see the Matrona. First time around I also attended antenatal classes which were quite good although at the time I was still getting to grips with spanish and whilst everything was quite well explained it didn't quite prepare me for the reality of it!!!

From what I've read about giving birth in the UK and here its quite different for example you are usually offered an epidural as pain relief (I don't think they offer anything else here) and an episotomy is almost de rigeur!

I don't know if you plan to breastfeed - I did and for my first DS I didn't get much help at the hospital at all and they did seem to encourage bottle feeding and in the end it didn't work for me at all. Second time around (nearly 3 years later) things appeared to have changed and the midwives had a different outlook with regards to breastfeeding.

Once you leave hospital with baby you are pretty much left to your own devices which is pretty scary at first so I guess it helps to have someone around to help if you can! Obviously you get to see your assigned midwife if you have any problems but they don't do home visits and the paedratrician who does the check ups until the baby is 2.

I've heard Virgen de Rocio has a good maternity ward - I look forward to hearing whether its true or not!!!

I better go to bed now - we've just come back from a party in Cordoba so forgive anything that doesn't make sense!

thanks costamum, that's really helpful. Who usually runs the antenatal classes? Would it be the midwife or do you have to go to the hospital for them? Silly question probably.

Macaco, normally the midwife would have info of the state run antenatal classes..

Hey Costamum - I?ve heard that about episiotomies in Spain, thought that was one of the scariest stories as well as them pushing down on the bump but what do I know, this time will be my first time and though I am in the UK, I am sure there will be some really scary parts!

Yes as Maveta said the midwife will have details of the state run classes or ask at your Centro de Salud. Whereabouts in the Sevilla province are you Macaco? I too have been here 7 years and am also married to a Spaniard but I met him back in the UK!

MrsMcJnr - I think the docs pushed on my bump for the first birth - I had had an epidural and I couldn't feel the contractions and in the end they had to use forceps! The second time round went so quickly I didn't even have time for an epidural and I don't recall them having to push on the bump!! (Still had to have an episiotomy though)

I have a vague recollection that one midwife pushed on my bump but for such a short time I didn´t even have a chance to tell her not to and she´d stopped. I was kind of shocked actually, although I´d heard they sometimes did it I really didn´t expect it. But like I said, it wasn´t prolonged pushing or anything and to be honest by that stage he was about one push from coming out and I didn´t care what anyone did as long as he just came out! lol

I also had an episiotomy but it was really small and it was some consolation that the doctor seemed really reluctant to do it, I asked dh if he can see a scar and he said no It was one of the things I really really didn´t want but in the end, again, I didn´t care! And once the stitches came out about 10days later, I didn´t even notice I´d had it done.

I was really happy with the care we received here, it´s true there isn´t as much ´after care´ but if you are lucky enough to live near a PAC you can pop along whenever to have things checked out. I have numbers for the spanish breast feeding lines like La Leche etc. if anyone needs them.

Just found this thread and thought I'd put my twopence worth in! I've been living in Madrid 6 years and had my DS 5 months ago. The hospital was fabulous in most ways but I do have to say that I had an episiotomy after only being in real painful labour for 20 minutes..I felt that they just wanted to get me out. I hadn't had an epidural and there was no warning..they just sliced me open and it HURT! They also did push on the bump but I had no problem with that part. The other things here are fine..I've had a few issues with DS since birth and they have been pretty good so far.
Macaco..congratulations and if you have any more questions just askX