Am I mad to move to France while pregnant?

[Anonymous111]

Hi everyone

Would so appreciate anyone’s advice.

We are in a unique situation where we could potentially move to France for between 12 and 15 months. My husband would keep working for his London-based company, and I would be on maternity leave from my London-based company. We have a daughter who would be 2 1/2 years old, and we would aim to move when I’m six months pregnant. Unfortunately it would not be possible to move any earlier due to work.

The idea that we’ve come up with is to live somewhere like Bordeaux or Lyon, set up my husband can commute back to London maybe once a month for meetings, and we would really enjoy the French lifestyle and finally finally learn proper French.

I’m very much aware that the admin is going to be a nightmare. My Hope is that one of our HR teams will help us with some of the paperwork at least.

My question is, to what extent am I absolutely bonkers to try and do it while I’m six months pregnant? I’m mostly concerned about getting into the French system to deliver the baby. I have an EU passport but no french paperwork . Online forums that I’ve researched say things like most French women register with a gynaecologist in a hospital within days of finding out they are pregnant, and because of the way the system works I would not be able to do this until I am six months pregnant.

Does anybody have any experience of moving to France while pregnant without all the paperwork established.

Does anybody know of any ways to streamline the admin process before you move? As I said we might be able to get our HR teams to help us

We very much feel like this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity because of various factors including our children being young, my husband being able to work from home as a hangover from Covid for a period of time, and my being on second maternity leave. We feel like if we don’t do it now, we won’t be able to do it.

Thank you so very much for anyone’s suggestions

@Woollystockings

When you say “my dh would continue to work for his London-based company”, what do you mean? Does he have an EU passport? Does his company have an office in France? I work for a multinational company, and no one is allowed to work abroad while their official office is based in the U.K. unless you mean short-term projects etc. The tax complications are immense.

If he’s working from home, it might be possible. Depends on the company. During the first lockdown, my husband wfh in Italy. He just had to go back occasionally. Now we’re in France, he can wfh from our UK house but not from the UK office, if that makes sense.

@Oriunda

I don’t know what to say. Thank you so so much for all of this you absolute ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all of this.

@Oriunda

And yes husband works from home. I also love that he would have to queue and not me PHEW

[quote Anonymous111]@Oriunda

And yes husband works from home. I also love that he would have to queue and not me PHEW[/quote]
Unfortunately you’d need to go with him to the prefecture on the first visit, as you are effectively his sponsor, providing proof that he lives with you etc. I recommend any rental of flat etc are in your name, as he will be lodging with you under your care, so to speak.

@TwoBlondes

I moved to France before Brexit and it took eighteen months to get in the healthcare system....

We moved to France last November and already have a social security no and an Ameli account.

OP it is a great idea, is you have a European Passport it will be much easier for you. Got through the Visa wizard on the French Embassy website and you will find out which visa if any you will need. The main cost i suspect will be the medical insurance to cover you whilst you are waiting to get into the system.

Bureaucracy aside I wouldn't want to give birth in a foreign country where I didn't speak the language. You can't just say that you would come back to the UK if something went wrong. What if your baby comes early and end up in an incubator with a feeding tube? It happened to me when I had been here 3 years and spoke reasonable French. It was still terrifying. And very isolating as you are put in an individual room with a closed door, no one to talk to and not allowed to leave the hospital for at least a week .

Why risk it? You are at your most vulnerable when you are pregnant and giving birth. Not being able to communicate with the nurses and midwives would make it 10 times worse. Oh and they don't really use gas and air here. Natural births are frowned upon. It is very medicalised.

@Frenchfancy
Thank you for sharing and I’m so sorry this happened to you.

I had a baby in NHS in London and the experience was …. poor at best. Both my husband and I felt it was incredibly unsafe and I was shocked that our experience seems to be if not common certainly not uncommon from what I now understand.

The french medical system has an incredible reputation and I hear what you are saying.

Sorry ../ but I hear what you are saying @Frenchfancy

@AlisonDonut thank you so much for your support it’s nice to have a positive in addition to @Oriunda!

OP did you make the move?? I am having the same dilemma!

Yup, currently feeling sick with stress trying to finalise residency in another European country. Despite doing everything by the book and following the process to the letter, they've made it difficult and messed things up every step of the way. And I actually expected it to be like this!

Just seen this is a zombie thread, sorry I'm not the OP

Hi

this was my thread and I can say it was utterly fine even though I didn’t speak a lick of real french - the paperwork was a little stressful, but it was really worth it, the doctors in the prenatal checks all spoke fluent English and many of them had actually trained in London. They went out of their way to make sure I was allocated doctors who spoke English.. none of the midwives spoke English and as the delivery was entirely Midwife lead, and yet it made not one bit of difference. In fact, I would say that the care I got was far superior to that in the UK on the NHS. The only thing I would say is I wouldn’t do it for my first baby with my poor french because you probably be quite scared delivering and not knowing what to expect in the moment due to the language barrier - I didn’t live in France long enough to be able to speak it so would recommend perhaps 3 months there to get the hang of the language prior + actually investing the time to learn it ( you can live there very happily and be completely ignorant of the language, which I also wouldn’t recommend)

there were a few minor paperwork issues like they tried to charge me for things because they kept assuming that I was there on holidays, and I just kept pushing back and then they would eventually waive the fee. You do have to pay a little bit so I think I had to pay really nominal amounts like £30 or £60 here or there for prenatal checks, and postnatal checks, but it was very low value, perhaps £200 -400 all in. They gave pretty much everybody a private room ( free), but this was out of Paris . They also provided me with a ludicrous list of things that I needed to buy after the delivery, which I did, all of which were utter waste of money and probably cost about £150 from the pharmacy! Things like saline water etc 😂 that would never be prescribed on the NHS.

I found people went out of their way to help me, I was really shocked by how friendly pretty much everybody was! But then again, I lived in London prior…

any questions please do let me know.

Hi Op so pleased for you that you went to France and it worked out well for you and the birth. I moved countries at 6 months pregnant for my first baby, although it was the USA so no language barrier, but the measurements were all different. Luckily we also found a doctor who had trained in London and all was well. Even had a second baby there! Back in Europe now though.

@Oriunda gave some really helpful to me too on my thread. And I will also say that Facebook really is your friend when moving abroad. Lots of private groups out there with people that have gone before.