When I found out I was pregnant, I didn't actually have sufficient health insurance. The public health insurance you can get here for free is the 'Tarjeta Sanitaria', for which you have to be a tax payer. Since I don't have a job, I am not a tax payer and therefore not eligible for the public health insurance. So I talked to my private health insurance company (which is quite reasonable here, only about 20 € a month), but I found out, I was only on the basic plan. For them to take care of my pregnancy I needed to have one level up. But because I already was pregnant, I couldn't upgrade, or only by paying an extra fee of 2500 €. The basic plan at least allowed me to go to the regular ultrasound checks and have my blood tested. Curiously, it also paid for baby classes.

After it was clear I couldn't get any insurance that would cover the birth (the nurses in the local health centre were really helpful in trying), I decided to go to the hospital and ask for a quote on a 'normal' birth.

That concept was beyond the people in the hospital. In fairness to them, I was a rare case.

They weren't able to give me a quote, because it 'depends' on what kind of medical care I would need. So they couldn't even give me a cost frame at all.

When the day came that I went into labour, I was taken by my husband to the public hospital and told them, they would have to send me a bill. I gave them my details and my ID.

My son is 10 months old now (May 2007) and I haven't heard from them ever. So I guess, because I didn't fit into their system, they couldn't bill me either. They probably don't have a system for that.

I found that EVERYBODY here was really supportive as soon as they found out about my pregnancy. I was treated like a queen and was given lots of (surprisingly) useful advice. I was also give a lot of baby things. People I had never met before came to my door to drop of baby clothes, toys, a bath tub, playpen, prams, cots, baby bottles and all sorts of things. In fact, the only piece of clothes I have ever had to buy for my son (so far) was a white shirt for a wedding. My doctor was also very nice. I went to the checkups once a month and also had my blood tested three or four times. Around the seventh month she sent me to a 3D scan (I had to pay for that one), which was really amazing. For the first time I could see and actually recognize the baby in my tummy in full colour. Here is the scan when the fetus was 7 months old.

The baby classes took 5 weeks with one session every week. It was certainly informative, but I don't think I learned anything practical there. They talked about the fetal development, about birth and making exercise, but there wasn't much that I didn't already know. I still recommend to attend the classes, if you have the time, because you never know what piece of information you get out of it that might turn out really helpful.

Whenever you see a mother going into labour in the movies, it always happens in a rush and she often doesn't make it to the nearest hospital. Many people around here warned me about that to. They said, because I live in the country and the nearest hospital is 50 km away, that I would have to hurry at the first sign. Well, the time came, I waited until the contractions were about 4 minutes apart and we went to the hospital. After I had checked in, I was kept waiting for a while. Nobody seemed to be in any hurry. Well, there was no hurry. It still took a whole night after that, before the baby came out.

I will always be thankful that the nurses who took care of me during labour convinced me to have an epidural. I was determined to not have one, because, frankly, I was scared. I didn't want to take the risk. But the nurses told me, that in Spain actually 90% of all women giving birth have an epidural, because it makes it so much easier. When I heard that it was such a normal thing for them, I completely lost my fear and signed the paper. The hardest part was to be absolutely still, while they stuck needles into my back during the contractions. As soon as hey had finished, the unbearable pain of the contractions disappeared. The rest was almost easy.

It is nice that every new mother gets a room to herself. Well, herself and the new baby. They even have an easy chair for the partner who is allowed to stay in the room for the entire stay.

The stay was actually quite boring. The baby slept most of the time, once a day he was snatched away by a nurse to be scrubbed (I wasn't allowed to do that myself). The highlights of the 48 hours in total I spent there were the meals. At least that gave me something to do.

When we could finally go, it was all very new and strange. You go to these baby classes, but suddenly here you are, with a tiny fragile bundle, and you don't really know what to do. I hear that all parents go through that in the first few days. I think it took about three weeks before I was confident enough to take the baby somewhere else without worrying.