We are moving to spain, Los Alcazares in November 2007. We have a six month rental lined up and have enough money to support us for at least six months. The concern that I have is that I am pregnant and due in January. How will I go about care at the hospital as we will not have made any social security payments and my husband may not have found work.
hi jodie and peter,
First of all congratulations!
If you are currently working in the UK you can apply for an E106 form.
I am expecting our first baby due october 07 😊 and i?m receiving full maternity care covered under this form.
If you have paid enough NI contributions in the UK you should be entitled to a max of 2 yrs cover for you and your baby.
Contact the department for work and pensions, based in Newcastle for further information on this.
Good luck with your move to Spain!
Thanks very much for the quick reply very interesting and we will definatly follow it up.
could i ask what you do for work and what area do you live in and how long have you lived there.
Thanks again and congratulations on your up and coming baby hope all goes well.
We moved to the Almeria region 2? months ago.
If your spanish is not too hot… like ours, you will have to take a translator to your hospital appointments with you. Also, over here the doctor will automatically tell you the sex of your child. Make sure you inform the doctor straight away if like us, you want it kept a surprise! We have heard very good reports from the care given here. The doctors have all been very good to me so far. Also, after the birth your partner will be expected to stay with you and your newborn until you are discharged. A chair is provided in your room for him to sleep in! One word of warning…. NO GAS n AIR over here!! Is this your first child?
No gas and air!!! help, although I had already been warned. We are hoping to find out the sex of the child on our next scan visit so what the Dr says will be no surprise. How long do they tend to keep you in hospital for?? Our other daughter is 10 years old and with her I was in hospital less than 24hrs. Typical UK and bed crisis. Child care could be a problem if Pete is suppose to stay in with me. We are all looking forward to moving out there and cant wait for November. What is the job situation over there?? Pete has just come out of the armed forces and we have been hearing totally different stories regarding employment. Are there alot of english speaking drs and midwifes out there and how much does it cost for a translator? I believe the after care is good.
Just thought I`d say Hi! Already posted a email to another preggy earlier today, however, had my two youngest here (in Barcelona, now living in Granada province) and it was great. Yep, no gas and air…...epidural, c-section always an option. Had epidural with my two youngest babies and brilliant…. I know not for everybody but was good, could sleep and they just `popped out!!! (Have had four mind) The care I got here was a million times better than UK…..although was a little unprepared for them taking the baby away for such a long time (and I think they feed them!!) Breastfed mine and wanted them with me, maybe it was just Barcelona, but when I said I wanted to keep the baby with me, they looked a bit shocked, however, stick your ground, you say what you want and all will be well. Not sure about the region you are going to live in (although went there on hols about 10 years ago) there are some places that do natural births and have doulas on hand to assist with delivery, but know loads of people in Barcelona still and they may know websites, etc that could help you more. Sorry couldn?t be of any more help.
Thanks for the reply. Seems like I was worring over nothing there seems to be loads of us english girls giving birth in spain. C section might be an option as I had complications with my daughter and trying to sort that out might prove a stressful time. What do we do about registering the birth and for applying for a passport. How long is the norm that they expect you to stay in hospital as we have mentioned previously child care could be a problem. Would be grateful if you have any web sites that could be of help. Trying to find out as much as I can before we arrive as will not have much time once we are over there.
i cant really give anymore advice as i am still finding info out myself!
hi also to alicia,
like jodie, i would also like to know any information regarding registering baby and getting a passport. my baby is due towards the end of october and i?d love to have the passport in time to return home for christmas!!
I had a baby here in Spain just over two years ago - my first - and some of these experiences might be a bit different from yours as I live in Melilla which is in North Africa and a bit behind the times!
I had prenatal classes with the health centre I’m registered at (social security) - a couple during the first two trimesters and then a month of one class a day the month before the birth. It was all in Spanish as there are hardly any English speakers here - it might be different in Barcelona though. My husband came with me to the classes and other husbands were there too, but there was one special class especially for fathers and if the father didn’t come to that they said that he wouldn’t be allowed in the delivery room as he wouldn’t be prepared for what would happen! All the fathers got a certificate and had to take that to the hospital for the birth. 6 weeks before the birth I had to have tests done and have an appointment with the anastheseologist to check it was okay to have an epidural. In the end I didn’t have one, but I did all the tests and appointments as if I didn’t I wouldn’t be able to get one on the day.
At the birth there were a couple of midwives and a doctor overseeing everything. They were all lovely and I was in a room by myself and my husband and parents could sit with me (only one at a time). There was no gas or air but I had some kind of painkiller on a drip. There was no such thing as a birth plan - basically I did whatever the midwives told me to and quite frankly, it made life a lot easier as I didn’t have to make any decisions and could concentrate on the giving birth part. At the last minute I was moved to the delivery room and my husband was allowed to come with me on the understanding that if there were any problems or if he started to be a problem he would be thrown out! The most important thing was mother and baby and father’s feelings didn’t come into it (quite right!).
As my daughter was a big baby (4.25kg) she was taken away after the birth for tests and monitoring, apparantly standard procedure. She was born at 4.07am and I didn’t see her again until 12.30pm the next day. It sounds terrible but I was so exhausted I could just sleep. My husband was allowed to stay with me all the time, although he did go home to sleep for a few hours.
Once I was given my daughter she stayed in a cot next the bed the whole time and if she had been smaller she would have been there from the birth. The midwives helped me with breastfeeding (she wasn’t good at it) and came to check on me regularly. I had to stay for at least 36 hours after the birth in the hospital which meant from Monday to Thursday for me as they only discharge in the mornings.
After the hospital I had a visit a week later from the widwife at the health centre and took my daughter the first week to have her appointment with her doctor and have the heel test. You get given a book for the child which has all the information about how often they need injections and appointments and you have to take this everytime you go to the doctor. It records all the treatment your child has until they are 14. I had a similar book during the pregnancy.
For registering the birth, I’m not really sure as my husband did most of this while I was in the hospital. I know it was a very frustrating process for him involving a lot of paperwork. I think he had to take some paper work from the hospital to the general registery office and they did the birth cert then with this they made a family book but I’m not 100% sure. I then sent the Spanish birth cert with some other paperwork to the British Consulate to get a British birth cert and passport. All the forms and information are on the website ukinspain.com. This took a couple of months in total.
I hope this information is of help to you if you’re having a baby here. As I said, it might be different in different cities. Good luck with it all and ask if you have anymore questions.
Thank you for the information that you have given I have found it quite useful.
I find it a little worrying the amount of time that you were without the baby. On the whole it appears to be more in depth than in the UK but although things appear to take a while over there it is possible to get things done. I really appreciate any information that anybody can give me as I want to get as much sorted before I actually give birth.
Hope all going well!! Same sort of experience re registering the birth, my husband, God bless him, did all the registering. Its a bit fiddly and then you have to register with the British Embassy AND when you get the birth certificate, then apply for the passport. We sent all the stuff off to Madrid for our little girl born last September and it all came back within the week!!! Not too shabby!! Found this website for , know its not the correct Costa but close enough for you Jodie. Think where you are going to live there are loads of English speakers who should be able to help. Good luck with everything and just yell if I can help anymore. Heres the website details…......... costablanca.angloinfo.com/countries/spain/birth.asp .
I had my third child in Spain in Murcia in May last year. I moved out here being 7 months pregnant and it was a complete nightmare. No-one spoke english and if you didnt speak enough spanish they refused to see you and demanded that you return with a translater. That said the actual birth in the Virgin Arrixaca hospital in El Palmar, Murcia went ok ... in the end ... my husband was finally allowed to be with me for the birth - after much arguments - and the birth went ok - everything before that was a nightmare. You have to stay in hospital for 48 hours but I signed myself out after less than 24 hours as did not see the point of being there any longer. The baby was next to me but they looked after him well. All I would say before you move is look into work options very thoroughly. We are now thinking about returning to the UK as the money here is pretty rubbish and the cost of living not as low as you think Everything else about it is very good. Hope this has been of help. Try and get some work first. What sort of work does your husband do?
We are moving to spain, Los Alcazares in November 2007. We have a six month rental lined up and have enough money to support us for at least six months. The concern that I have is that I am pregnant and due in January. How will I go about care at the hospital as we will not have made any social security payments and my husband may not have found work.[/quote]
