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.

[macaco]

bump. any señoritas out there?

[macaco]

anyone?

[belgo]

I'm not in Spain, but I thinkk you should make an appointment with your GP. You will need some standard bloods tests.

Do you know any people in Spain who have had their baby there? You may need a recommendation for a gyneacologist, or your GP could recommend you one.

[lucy5]

Have a look at www.mumsinspain.com I havent got loads of time now but will be back on soon.

[macaco]

have been on that site, very helpful, thanks Lucy. Going to doctors on Monday so that should get the ball rolling!

[macaco]

anyone else?

[Dropinthe]

Lucy5 lives in Spain-try CATing her! She is lovely!

[Dropinthe]

DOH! Just saw you honey! BTW-have accepted you as a friend on Facebook-where IS your photo?

[maveta]

I´ve only just seen your message - hello! I´m also in Spain and have a 4 month old ds. Call your local medical centre and ask them to make an appt with the comadrona. I think we saw her at about 8 weeks but I can´t quite remember. All of my care was shared between the midwife and the hospital and I never saw a gynaecologist although other women did. I never figured out why the difference

HTH but let me know if you want any more info and I´ll help as best I can.

[macaco]

Hi. Thanks maveta for responding. I'm going to see the medico de cabecera today so will let you know how I get on. I'm particularly interested in anyone who's had a baby NOT on the costa del sol as I'm inland and it's really quite different...no English speaking midwives etc. I do speak good Spanish though (been here 7 years and married to Spaniard) so it's not a problem, just a different experience. Where are you? I'm in Sevilla province.

[macaco]

Hi maveta. Where in Spain are you by the way? I'm near Sevilla. Just been to see doc and he's given me appointment on mOnday for bloods and urine and then I see midwife followed by gynae at some point before 12 weeks. Unfortunately apparently the gynae when I see him/her will give me a (whispers) vaginal scan. sounds unpleasant.

[MrsMcJnr]

Sorry to crash only reading because we are moving to Spain next year with a newborn and hope to have more babies there

Internal scans are ok - honestly, not painful and much less "intrusive" than a smear.

Congratulations!

[macaco]

Hi MrsMcJnr. Where in Spain are you moving to? Glad to hear vaginal scans are ok. freaked me out a bit when I first heard it.

[MrsMcJnr]

Costa del Sol (between Fuengirola and Marbella). Grew up there and am going back after 15 years in Scotland just need to get our house here sold first (oh and have my baby in January...!) we plan to move in March time all being well.

Lots of friends have had babies in Spain. They have all been fine you just have to know what you want and what you don't!

[macaco]

so you must be very fluent if not bilingual. I'm a bit scared by the whole idea of pregnancy/birth but not so much because of it being Spain (I speak good Spanish and am married to a Spainard) I'm just a bit freaked out by the whole thing.

Think I'm going to tell my mum next week as I'm having bloods done and the last time they did it he left me with an enormous bruise! She knows we were ttc so the sight of obvious blood works will give the game away. Also my brother's visiting at the mo and I'd like to tell him before he goes. Not telling the in laws yet as MIL will tell everyone in the world even if she's told not to and it's all a bit early for anyone but close (and discreet) family to know.

[MrsMcJnr]

Rusty fluent I?d say, planning my wedding there last year helped bring it back though. My DH is learning Spanish at night school at the Uni here and I help him so it improves my basics! He?s been going for a year now but it?s no substitute for being in Spain learning there. That said, in our part of Spain you can actually manage with no Spanish at all there are so many foreigners but that?s not how we want to live. We plan to send our kids to a bilingual school we know of too.

I can understand why you are a bit scared, it?s not so much the language not being your first it?s more about the cultural differences I guess but saying that, this is my first baby and it?s scary for me too so I think it is also to do with a comfort zone thing. I have heard of NCT teachers in the South of Spain, I don?t know if that would help, whether they tailor their teaching to the Spanish way of things?

Hope you find lots of support on this site and the other one recommended I?ll be keeping an eye out for you all in a few months as I?ll need some advice on baby inoculations and how the British system will work with the Spanish if we leave here with a baby of 6 weeks or so

Enjoy breaking the news

[maveta]

Hi again! I´m in mallorca.. yes that´s right, i´d forgotten i saw the doctor first who sent me for blood tests and then the midwife. no gynae for me like i said, i never had a single internal exam so can´t help i´m afraid!

I found the care here very good although of course i can´compare it to anything as he was my first. compared to friends back home i had more scans (12 ish weeks, 20 weeks, 36? weeks) and they did the group strep b test as standard. They were a bit full on with regards to weight gain (i.e. they think you should gain no more than 11kgs regardless of your size/shape/health) When they tried to put me on a diet (! i gained 16kgs in total which IMHO is fine, I lost 11kgs within 10 days of the birth!!) I almost came to blows with the midwife and told her to back off. She continued weighing me at every visit but never said another thing about it.

Birth wise it seems like in the UK your experience can vary wildly according to where you are. I was assigned to a very modern new teaching hospital with a ´humane´ approach (shouldn´t they all be?! ) so they were very hands off. I would say you should definitely go to antenatal classes of some sort as we didn´t and were very lost in the dilation phase where we were left 100% alone for hours at a time. I think in the UK often a midwife is there helping/guiding you or something but here that doesn´t seem to be the case. On the other hand my dh never left my side except for 2 mins when they put the epidural in. Apart from that he was with me from when we entered to when we left 3 days later. They even brought him a sheet and pillow to sleep on the sofa

That was maybe a lot more info than you were looking for kind of got on a roll.. um.. if you want any other info or whatever let me know, take care, have a fabulous pregnancy.

PS. If you don´t want to know the sex of your baby at your 20 week scan make sure they know!!

[MrsMcJnr]

That sounds really positive Maveta the 2 things that I can't get here in the UK seem standard in Spain and those are the Strep B testing and Daddy being allowed to stay too - here they get kicked out shortly after the birth .

[macaco]

Hi maveta. A friend of mine told them she didn't want to know with her first and during the scan when they can tell you, the woman goes "pues sigue muy bien, con todos los deditos y todos los de los pies, sigue siendo niña.....uups"

I'm going to try to find a doula as my dh is PATHETIC about hospitals, blood etc, just the smell of hospitals makes him faint. So, although I've said he needs to come with me I think he'll be out of the room more than he's in it. I'm not too worried about the birth as I think it can be bad in the UK too, I'm going to think very hard about what I want to avoid and perhaps look into hypnobirthing.

[MrsMcJnr]

whoops!

[macaco]

how far long are you MrsMcJnr? And what made you decide to come back to Andalucia?

[MrsMcJnr]

Hi I'm 20 weeks but still in the UK at the mo, we plan to move back when the baby is 6 weeks old - all being well (and if our house is sold!) we just feel that we'd have a better family life back in Spain than here

[maveta]

How annoying, I wrote a reply last night but must have forgotten to press ´Post´!

Yes, that happened to my sister in law too, they didn´t want to know but then a passing assistant came in the room and went ´Oh she´s looking like a big girl!` or something to that effect You can only try I guess.. In the end we wanted to know so it was fine, and we even did the very spanish thing of calling the baby by his chosen name before he was born, which I never thought I´d do!

If you haven´t already, find out your hospital´s policy on doula´s, they are almost unheard of here and where I was you could have whoever you wanted BUT only 1 person. So no hubbie AND doula. But if you are fine with that, I´m sure a doula would be a fantastic help. I did write a birth plan, there´s a site I´m not sure if you´ve seen? called Crianza Natural and it has loads of resources more specific to spain. BUT in the end I didn´t take the plan in with me and I´m glad I didn´t as everything went so far from the plan that I would have felt a right knob . That website really pushes you doing one and making them accept it but I just knew from my antenatal experiences that they would have no truck with it and in the end I´m glad I decided to be more flexible, I had to be induced, have continuous monitoring, epidural blah blah blah and I think if I had resisted any of it I might have found it more difficult. I think it´s great to have an idea of what´s important to you but also to be aware it might go completely the other way!

MrsMcJnr - I´ve got my baby´s vaccination book if you want me to tell you which ones they do when?

[MrsMcJnr]

I didn?t know that Spaniards routinely found out what they were having and named them before birth if you have a girl, will you be having her ears pierced at birth or is it not done that early any more? I am in two minds, if we have a baby girl and move to Spain, it?ll look odd not to have her ears pierced and I do think it looks pretty but I don?t think piercing a toddler?s ears is something I?d like to have done. Thanks so much I?ll check the vaccination schedule here and come back to you

[MrsMcJnr]

This is what I?ve downloaded from the NHS website for the 1st year:

2 months old - Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), polio and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) (DTaP/IPV/Hib) One injection & Pneumococcal infection
(Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, PCV) One injection

3 months old - Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib)(DTaP/IPV/Hib) One injection & Meningitis C (meningococcal group C) (MenC) One injection

4 months old- Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib)
(DTaP/IPV/Hib) One injection & Meningitis C (meningococcal group C) (MenC) One injection & Pneumococcal infection (Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, PCV) One injection

Around 12 months old - Haemophilus influenza type b (Hib) and meningitis C
(Hib/MenC) One injection

Around 13 months old - Measles, mumps and rubella (German measles)
(MMR) One injection & Pneumococcal infection (PCV) - One injection