My wife is pregnant, and we live in Tuscany in the province of Pisa. We have seen a couple of doctors so far at the hospital in Pontedera, the visits have been completely unpersonal, and are the treatment we have gotten so far has been lacking in compassion. Today while waiting to be seen from what we could gather a woman who had just had a miscarriage, or complications with birth was brought on a bed into the waiting area crying, and another woman who was brought in a wheel chair from the emergency room,(who may have been in the early stages of labor) was brought in to sit and wait with the rest of us...
This makes my stomach churn, I don't want to be thrown into that position when my wife goes into labor.

Is this common practice in Italy? Can anyone offer me some tips?

Are there preganancy classes available?

Do you know of a good Midwife, Doctor/OBGYN in Tuscany?

If I have to pay for private care I will. This is our first child, and I don't want to remember the day with negativety.

I can't stand thinking that we may be put in the same awkward position as the women we saw today, it must have been humiliating for them.

Help. Please.

There are lots of threads on this - some quite alarming. Do a search.

I'm giving birth in approximately 3 weeks in Rome. I did a lot of research and found a situation I'm comfortable with (private midwife in public hospital). The only solution is lots of research. Sorry I can't help you with Pisa. I've heard that Poggibonsi in Siena is fantastic but that may be too far.

Don't expect a touchy-feely experience in giving birth here. I gave birth in January, and had a situation similar to what you saw in the hospital. As I was being monitored at the beginning of my labor, I was in the room with a woman having what looked to be a very painful miscarriage. It was horrible for me, and I'm sure a million times worse for her. A very good friend of mine had a miscarriage here and afterward was parked in the hall outside the delivery rooms where she could hear the first cries of the newborn babies as they came into the world. She told me that it's something that will traumatize her forever. If you go to my blog and click on the pregnancy threads, you will see the experience I had here, which seems to be quite common. My advice is to not watch those 'A Baby Story' shows and imagine that is the experience you will have here. It most likely isn't. You will most likely get good care from a healthcare point of view but don't expect a personal touch along the way. For most of my pregnancy I felt like a slab of meat. I remember having to get an EKG at the end of my pregnancy and when it was almost my turn, I was asked to wait outside the door of the examining room and take my shirt and bra off in preparation (in full view of the 50 people in the waiting room and the person before me who was about to walk out of the room) - forget about getting any kind of gown here... I'm not a prude but I refused to do it on principle. To me that summed up so much of my experience here over the whole nine months - I felt like a widget on the healthcare assembly line not like a human being to be treated with respect. In any case, all went well, my baby is fine and I've pretty much put it all out of my mind.
Michelle

quote:

You will most likely get good care from a healthcare point of view but don't expect a personal touch along the way. For most of my pregnancy I felt like a slab of meat. I remember having to get an EKG at the end of my pregnancy and when it was almost my turn, I was asked to wait outside the door of the examining room and take my shirt and bra off in preparation (in full view of the 50 people in the waiting room and the person before me who was about to walk out of the room) - forget about getting any kind of gown here..

They're obsessed with privacy laws here, but only when it means someone will find out about you or that you're doing something wrong. A person's personal privacy for example in a hospital situation seems to be completely over looked.

Some of the birth threads here are quite scary, but I suppose that in the end it's the quality of the doctors and medical staff that is important and not the hotel style hospital.

I've had two kids here and whilst i agree that a nice bedside manner doesn't really seem to exist here and labour wards are treated more like operating theatres and not comfy rooms, I did however feel at all times that I was in competent hands and never at risk. Even when my unborn baby started to go into panic mode with dropped oxygen levels they never let me know that and kept the monitor behind me. Luckily I had very quick and relentless contractions (painful ones too) so my baby came out very very quickly.
It was only afterwards I learnt that the emergency c-section team were getting ready in the next room - so they were well prepared for any eventuality.

Midwives and homebirth do exist in Italy. Several people I know have gone this route with very wonderful, personal experiences to boot. If it's personal care and connection with someone who will get to know and care for your wife in the coming months, I'd seek out a midwife that does homebirth. If there is any reason that you would need to be in the hospital, she could probably help you find one where she could go with you.

I just checked and you might want to look into Nascita Dolce... they do have services in Pisa.
http://www.nascitadolce.it/engl.swf

Hi,
I've posted on other threads about this if you search. Nascita Dolce is actually a private midwife who is sienese and based in Siena. She was also my midwife and fabulous. I also gave birth at Poggibonsi and had a great experience, nothing like what other people are describing. People come from all over italy to give birth at Poggibonsi, so you could definitely do it. I have at least 4 friends who had very positive birth experiences there.
Please email me w/ any questions or to know more. elisamaria at mindspring dot com

Hi everyone

I really wish I'd found this site sooner!

However, I would also like to add that pregnancy/birthing experiences in Italy seem to vary dramatically depending on where you are.

My personal experience has, so far (we've just reached 30 weeks), been a bit of a mixture - we had some complications early on that called into play the religious views of carers. However, in more recent weeks my experience has been very positive - I live in Montepulciano in Southern Tuscany. I ended up opting for a private gynaecologist while also seeing the public mid-wives.

I also have heard good reports about the hospital in Poggibonsi and had I not been comfortable with the options/service offered by my local hospital would have been more than prepared to travel there.

I gave birth a year ago at the hospital in Lucca.. though i wouldnt reccommend the hospital , i was quite pleased with the ob gyn that followed me during my pregnancy (privately of course, so paid out of pocket for visits)..

Her name is Innocenti and her studio is right behind the hospital in Lucca. she has her own ultrasound machine in her office. she is affiliated with the hospital in lucca