For any woman finding out that they are pregnant is quite possibly one of the most exciting yet daunting prospects they will ever have to face in life. Discovering you are expecting in a foreign country can only add to your worries, especially if you are a new arrival and have yet to learn the language, let alone secure gainful employment with a contract before your growing bump gives the game away.

Panic can quickly set in as you contemplate all the hurdles that need to be overcome in order to achieve a trouble free pregnancy. In the first instance, I needed to decide whether to stay in Spain to have my baby or whether I would be better off returning to the UK. I was very mindful of the horror stories being broadcast on the news in the UK at the time where everyone was complaining about the lack of midwives, women in labour being left on trolleys in corridors, let alone the risk of contracting MRSA. On the plus side to this scenario, at least I would be understood when I was screaming my head off begging for more drugs! I could add that I was fully geared up for a horrendous birth, having heard one too many graphic stories from friends who had been traumatised by their own experiences. Add to this my own memories of working nights in a hospital where I used to hear the tortured cries coming from the maternity units, I was most definitely preparing for the worst and so had to decide which country would be the lesser of two evils, so to speak.

Having heard good reports about the Costa del Sol Hospital in Marbella and after taking everything into consideration, I decided to have my baby here in Spain. Right, the next thing on the agenda was to find a way to have the delivery without it costing an arm and a leg, because, without a contract with your employer in Spain, you are not entitled to receive health care under the Spanish social security system. I quickly discovered that despite all the adverts in the papers advertising health insurance, they are not willing to consider you under these circumstances unless the policy has been in force for 9 months prior to conception. Not an awful lot of help in my situation as I found out I was pregnant within 4 weeks of being in Spain.

However, by a convoluted route involving numerous phone calls with different departments, I was able to transfer my NHS benefits over to the Spanish Social Seguridad by way of using an E106 form, where the length of cover is determined by the amount of NI contributions you have made over the previous two years. For anyone in a similar position, you need to contact the Dept of Work & Pensions in the UK to facilitate this.

Once in the system, you can receive your antenatal care at the local doctors or choose to go private. Because the classes were held in Malaga and were therefore obviously held in Spanish, I elected not to go and instead received my checkups care of Helicopteros Sanitarios. This decision was purely based on my own experiences at the local doctors surgery and also having heard first hand from an expectant mother here in Fuengirola just exactly what the classes were like. For anyone wishing to receive antenatal classes in English, there is an Irish midwife who advertises her services in the local paper, the Sur. I believe I met her during the course of my stay as you wouldn’t think that there are too many Irish midwives based at the Costa del Sol. If so, she was extremely friendly and reassuring during what was to become a long and protracted labour and a huge relief to have an English speaking nurse present.

So, when the time came, in my case, a few days early, off I went to the Costa del Sol hospital, inwardly terrified of the forthcoming ordeal and feeling incredibly unprepared. After all the registration checks were completed, I was guided to an examination room and from that point on, the care was delivered mostly in a courteous, friendly and professional manner in a mixture of English and Spanish. Right from the start, the doctor enquired if I would like an epidural if it became necessary to which I instantly agreed as I am not a huge fan of intense pain. On the downside to this, when I then asked for some painkillers in the absence of any being offered, I had to wait what felt like an eternity but was probably only a few hours before it was administered whilst they waited for the results of the blood tests they had taken. I had always assumed that you would be given gas and air as the first set of painkillers and then the type of medication and dosage would be gradually increased to drugs like pethidine etc before you received an epidural. However, not having given birth before in a Spanish hospital I could only assume that things were done differently over here compared to the information given in the NHS booklets. As I had already endured over 13 hours of contractions with increasing intensity, I really was not in the mood to have to wait any longer so it was a blessed relief when I finally received the epidural.

The labour then became a waiting game as for some reason the contractions slowed down, my baby was unable to twist himself into the right position and my body decided that it did not want to enter the third stage of labour. So, after a long 12 hours in the hospital, an emergency caesarean was agreed upon as the next course of action as the baby was becoming too distressed. Then, all my fears really set in as the idea of being operated on was absolutely terrifying. I’d like to say that the experience was completely positive but not only was my partner not allowed to stay with me during the procedure but the staff decided to use my hospital gown as the screen that is erected before your head instead of a separate cover with the result that my bump and nether regions were totally exposed to all and sundry. To add to my misery, the theatre door was left open so anyone passing could take a good peek and all the operating staff thought it a good idea to congregate at the base of the operating table to have a bit of a giggle and gossip until the surgeons arrived. The operation itself was quite possibly the most scary experience I have ever had as whilst you don’t feel any pain as such, you are definitely aware of the tugging and pulling within your womb as they take the baby out. When he did finally enter the world with an almighty cry, (I should have taken this as a sign of things to come!) he was immediately whisked off to an adjoining room so I barely caught a glimpse of him. I was not to be reunited with my new baby until over 4 hours later when I was finally moved from the recovery unit. Whether this is how it is done elsewhere I cannot say but I know that I will always regret not being able to share those first few hours of his life.

Our new home for the next four days was a pleasant 2 bed room complete with toilet and shower. Whilst the room itself was lovely, the same could not be said for the patient next to me who, whilst nice enough, was months away from giving birth and seemed to have an army of relatives ever present, all keen to talk as loudly as they possibly could. The notice on the wall limiting visitors to just 2 at certain times seemed to be blatantly ignored so whilst the room was a good size for a few people, with 10 – 12 people inside, it was impossibly cramped and horrible to be stuck in. I also had to share my living space with the womans husband who deemed it necessary to stay over every night and chat until the early hours and then promptly snore his head off whilst I was trying to pacify what was proving to be a very difficult and demanding baby who appeared to suffer constantly with colic. However, the care I received from the nurses was good so no complaints there at least.

For anyone in a similar position, aside from the minor blips I experienced, overall I would recommend the Costa del Sol hospital as a good place to have your baby because the medical care could not be faulted and I received continuous monitoring throughout the labour from an attentive and professional team. I’m not so sure I could say the same about the UK if all the documentaries and newspapers regarding maternity units are correct.

Fiona Kirkpatrick