Pregnancy in Spain

Once the joy of the positive pregnancy test has settled down and the reality of the next 9 months has hit, you can find yourself desperately trawling every information source for details of what you can expect, helpful advice about hospital choices, other mums' birth experiences, etc. Don't be surprised when every other person seems to have a horror story to share! This would be the same regardless of where you lived, and of course having a baby abroad makes the story even more dramatic and compelling.

It is an unfortunate reality that complications can and do occur during labour and delivery, but these cases are in the minority, and it is important to hold onto a sense of perspective when you maybe do find yourself bombarded with accounts of "horrific" birth experiences. I am not sure why fellow mothers feel the need to fairly insensitively share these horrors with their unsuspecting peers who are simply looking for a little reassurance, but trust me they will! There is absolutely no reason why you shouldn't expect an "average" birth experience, by that I mean avoiding complications or trauma. Birth is a painful process, there is no escaping that...it will hurt! But it is one day out of your life and it does end! Ignore all the chatter about pain thresholds because I don't think that has anything to do with it. Every single labour, just like every pregnancy, is unique. The woman who battles her way through a 42 hour labour should not be held any higher in regard than someone who had a "quick" 12 hour labour and delivery. The woman who turned to an epidural should not be considered less of a woman than the labouring mother who did it all with thin air alone!

I found from observing friends who had had children before me, who then sat and dissected every aspect of their respective births, they were almost competitive over how much they with-stood, how hard their labours were, etc, etc. I think it is really very important to talk about your birth experience afterwards, but when the opportunity does present itself there seems to be a need to "out-do" one another! As if we have something to prove, when surely we already have. The fact that we have a healthy baby in our arms is proof enough regardless of how it got there.