Pregnancy in Barbados

How does it feel, as a European expatriate, to be pregnant in Barbados? What are the positive and negative aspects? What do you need to know to prepare yourself to be pregnant here?

We moved here, I was 23 weeks pregnant.

In terms of follow up, I had already had in UK the 2 ultrasound scans that you would usually have in England or in Barbados for the whole period of a normal pregnancy. I would probably have another 7 consultations until the end of my pregnancy + I had to chose a place where I would like to give birth, a private Doctor or a Midwife led governmental follow up, and I had to enquire about my health costs and possible benefits or support available with health costs.

First week here, I found out that my health costs would not be taken in charge by the employer of my partner. Be aware, it can be the same case with many employers on the island. The health cover is not as good as in Europe (at least, not as good as in France or UK). The reason my pregnancy is not taken in charge by the employer is because they do not take in charge 'pre-existing conditions'.

So, compared to UK, I was losing:

• a full health costs covered pregnancy,
• my benefits for free medication at the chemist,
• my rights for a pregnancy long + a year of free consultations at the dentist,
• the additional financial support that I got after Noa's birth during 6 months to cover my maternity 'leave'.

On the personal 'comfort' side, I had to adjust with 30 degrees more than in the country I had just left and I had to adjust to the mosquito bites that would regularly make my right foot react and get it swollen.

On the other hand, I was now in a country where:

• you cannot do much else than relax,
• the sun was giving me plenty of Vitamin D,
• I could get into the sea as often as I wanted,
• I could get as many fresh coconut milk drinks, fresh mangoes and avocados as I'd like.

Regarding the follow up and "delivery locations" to give birth, here are the several options we have considered:

1. A private Doctor delivering at the General Hospital (QE) or at a private clinic (Bayview)
2. A polyclinic and hospital governmental midwife and doctor on duty led follow up
3. A private midwife birthing centre

Considering the costs of consultations + private Dr fee for the birth + private paediatrician fee + hospital fee for Non National + potential private anaesthetist fee + potential extra costs for a caesarian + some potential additional nights at the hospital...

We found out that the first option would cost us between BBDOS $ 5,000 for a simple birth at the QE to BBDOS $ 10,000 for a more complicated birth at the Bayview clinic. The 2nd option would cost 3 to 4 times less. The 3rd option was in-between in terms of costs, a more relaxing environment, but less safe in terms of equipment available and in terms of rapidity to react if we would have to arrive in an emergency state at the hospital. So, we decided to go for the 2nd option, which seemingly is a more unusual choice for an expatriate here or for some of the persons we had made friends with around us - shall they be Bajan or not.

So, now, I'll describe how the follow up with the 2nd option has been so far...

(to be ctd...)

Barbados - Settling in

Barbados - Settling in or Settling in a new country? I've been hesitating a long time between those 2 titles...These are actually 2 different issues and I wonder what I shall start with...

A friend once told me: " Second after a divorce, the most stressful strain on a family is a house move"...Well, I'll confirm one point here: a house move and especially a move with a family towards a country located very far away physically and "culturally" from what you are used to, and offering less 'comfort' than what you've been having so far...is certainly a challenge.

Another friend told me: "The most beautiful clay pots have to go through fire. What your family is experiencing now is the fire. After that, it will be beautiful."

Well, to be honest, thinking back about the motivations that have led us here, we were starting to feel a bit too 'comfortable' and wanted to experience a challenge. The result is achieved. We do experience this challenge.

Barbados itself, to be fair, offers to a tourist coming here on holidays, the eternal and guaranteed sunshine and heat all over the year, the certainty that you will have an accessible beach from any point on the island, a good range of extra activities such as diving, snorkelling, surfing, 'yachting', watching a polo or a cricket match, or simply relaxing which is what most people seem to do here...partly per pure choice or partly because the heat does not allow much efforts or movements to be made around mid day unless you are in an air conditioned hotel or car...

Now, living here, is a different story..."Living" but not "holidaying" implies in my sense that you want to be active and do things. Living implies that you have to fit in the society, that you have to deal with different administrative bodies for sorting out your paperwork, ID issues, bills, post, banks, relationships with your employer...then, add to this living here while pregnant and about to give birth...means you have to add the health cover issues and rapports with doctors, nurses, midwives, hospitals...As you see, we decided to make our challenge a very interesting one!;-)

I'll pass the full details of our issues with:

• Work permit and visas being delayed and still not sorted after 6 months after the date where they should have been sorted,
• Post partially not delivered and some delivered randomly after more than a month that it had arrived on the island,
• Employer not answering our requests or answering vaguely or wrongly and letting us finding out that we actually do not have any health cover for pregnancy once we arrived here or doing the same with the house hunt issue or the car hunt issue...not to mention the numbers of CVs from me that have been lost and the promises to hire me as a guest lecturer or as permanent staff that have kept going on for more than 3 months without a single progress...

This list could extend on and on for long...but most importantly at this stage is what we've learnt so far out of this...The system is slow and you have to get used to it.

• People do not like emails - you need to talk face to face - emails are rarely answered.
• There is a particular way to communicate - if you show any tension...it will just delay everything a lot longer.
• At the end of the day, a lot holds in your own attitude...

Barbados - First Impressions

After explaining at lengths the reasons I decided to start this blog, I'd better give it a real start and give you some news about Barbados! So, on this 4th of January 2010, when we left UK under -5 degrees, what happened on this side of the Atlantic???

After 8 hours in the plane, we start seeing the coast line of Barbados - I must admit, I cannot remember 3 months after, how I saw the coast first but what I remember very clearly was the rise of heat inside the plane itself as we were going down. Was it due to my pregnancy or does it hit everybody in the same way when coming from a colder country? I do not know but for sure, it was extremely unpleasant at first - to feel the heat, without seeing the sunny landscape - it was as if I was lacking of air, I was starting to feel sick...

Finally, we landed and after a long wait inside the plane, we eventually started moving and reached the top of the stairs outside of the plane. At that point, I had a joyful moment:-) We had just been through half of one of the coldest winter ever in UK and I suddenly could see this ultra sunny landscape and was hit by the second real wave of extremely hot air. In addition, my heart jumped inside, I was full of hope - not that I had ever been excited by the perspective of moving here - I've never had any particular attraction for the Caribbean - but several events seemed to drag us there - I knew, I had to go through this and I thought there must be a good reason for it. So, I was full of hope and overwhelmed by the sun and this just made me feel I wanted to laugh like crazy:-)

The arrival at the airport and many things that just happened on that first day would be very relevant of feelings I still have today...

The heat has proved more than once to have very strange chemical effects on our brain...it hits you suddenly - around 8-9 am in the morning, it gets sometimes overwhelming, it gives you sometimes the impression that certain connections on the software of my brain are melting, it favours the spread of creative new ideas and intuitive thinking as Jos would say, but it also makes it very difficult to concentrate on things...it is like everything would be boiling and melting away quickly...it is difficult to keep focused on one thing - hence, maybe the time it takes me to give a real start to this blog...although, here, I would blame also the fact of disliking spending time in front of any source of heat...ad my cooking is still done because with my beliefs about healthy living, it is necessary but suffering as well of this problem...it gets so difficult to spend too long in front of any source of heat...

Let's come back to the arrival at the airport and the various elements of that first day that would prove to be still an issue or a joy or a fact today...

Then, came the queue and the non-sorted visa issue at the passport desk...a letter from the University of West Indies brought by the Vice President would do for a temporarily permit to stay but this took time and was not how things were supposed to be dealt with...Jos employer had received our papers - Noa and mine - 3 months before our arrival, as requested, in order to issue our permits to stay...but nothing had been sorted out and nothing still has been sorted out regarding our visas 3 months after our move on the island. Noa and me entered with a permit to stay 3 weeks...I guess, we are still here illegally for 2 months...

Then, our first encounter with the land on our first taxi drive to the hotel...

Nowadays, with internet, you see pictures before, you know more or less what to expect - I did not fall in love instantly with the place...I had my prejudice about the island - the majority of pictures I had seen were the 'selected prettier ones', the news you read about Barbados all talk about 'the little England of the Caribbean', the most modern place in the Caribbean, the cricket, the golf courses, the luxurious hotels taking over the nature...So, I did not fall in love with the place but I actually felt a funny relief when I saw the road leaving from the airport getting narrower, dustier, going through some packed colourful 'slum' houses area...As I was strangely getting relieved by the sight of a poorer view of the country that sort of made me feel this was going to be more exotic and adventurous than the dreadful thought of living on a luxurious island...Jos, on the other hand was getting more concerned...

We drove on some narrow roads with no finished sides, no pavements, through the sugar cane fields...we drove through some shortcuts around Bridgetown - as I would later realise - surrounded by a very dense collection of small houses - Here and there, a green painted 'Heineken' house where people are gathered or a red painted 'Banks' house, which hold bars or small mini cans' convenient stores inside...

The hotel looked lovely - some private flats - exotic, comfortable, and still simple - not of this luxurious type I was dreading of. It was spacious, had a large opening at the front on the terrace - same as our house now actually - 2 wide open doors on the terrace - offering an excellent view on some green in front - including palm trees and colourful flowers. We had 2 large spacious rooms, with A/C!!! a good size kitchen bar opened on the living room area...Anyhow, just to say, all looked comfortable but somehow isolated...and I felt a funny squeeze inside...which is still in my heart...

There are nice areas, nice spots from which you look at an amazing sunset for example...but so many times, everything around you reminds you that you are on a small island with a feeling of isolation from the external world...you are on a coral reef plate that emerged out of the sea slowly in the middle of the ocean and the notion of time and space here feels very different than on a bigger part of land attached to others...well at least, the experience I've had of living in Europe...

Here are some pictures of our first week in Barbados to illustrate some of my thoughts although, on the pictures, I feel more a sense of immensity but I am not sure this strange feeling of isolation comes across...well, hopefully not since once wants to bring a bit of dream through the pictures...or maybe, it is just a paradox here - living on a paradise island with a feeling of nostalgia...or maybe it is just us or just me feeling that...

http://picasaweb.google.com/sofnoajos/Barbados1stWeek#

Two Months...

Two months since our family moved to Barbados and two months before our second daughter's due date...Does this make it a sound reason to start a blog today? Well, not necessarily, but I will use these two reasons to finally give this project a start;)

My dearly missed friends abandoned in England on Monday the 4th of January 2010 under -5 degrees, I would like to dedicate this blog especially to you.

Although, it has not been unusual since I was born that I move around various homes, various towns, various countries, I realise today, miles away from England, that I had grown particularly attached to my latest 'nest' in Hampshire...

How can I explain that?
Many explanations come to my mind...

One of them must be the fact that I had rarely been living such a long time in the same area. I mean, in the same very tiny area! Indeed, 8 years have passed without me moving further than about 1 km away from the epicentre of the vivid international academic life of the University of Southampton! Can you believe that?!

However, living in the same tiny perimeter, did not mean that I spent 8 years doing the same activity nor getting involved with the same people...No, on the contrary! For some reason, these 8 years seem to have been the most fulfilled ones with encounters of people from all kind of backgrounds!

Over these 8 years, I have been working with the Chambers of Commerce of Southampton and Romsey, helping companies to build tighter links together. I have also been involved in several part time activities such as: teaching French, translating holiday brochures, selling clothes in the city centre, helping to reorganise the files of the university halls of residence, working with the City Council or the European Information Centre, and coordinating the communications of an "inter-universities" project with the Ministry of Defence. Finally, at the university, I studied and worked within the Maths, Ship Science, Psychology, Foreign Languages and Management departments...

It all resulted with the lucky encounter of a lot of extraordinary people around all those activities...Friends with whom we've been sharing wonderful walks, runs, recipes, travels, explorations, friends who hold this common "internationality" in their hearts, friends with whom we shared a common understanding without having to talk to each other, friends who cared for me in good and in difficult times too...

I start this new blog for you hoping that it will help you to learn more about the atmosphere we live in here; hoping that it will give you a different insight on what it means to move with a family to a country very far away; hoping that you will enjoy a different view on what it means to live in the Caribbean:-)

To all our friends and family scattered around the world, this blog will sort of follow up my msn blog http://planetesophie.spaces.live.com started in 2006. I am hoping to make it a bit different though - I mean to write more about our daily life, my emotions, the changes we are going through following our recent long distance move and the changes that are soon to come with the arrival of a 4th member in the family. Regarding photos, I'll carry on posting on Jos picasa album http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/sofnoajos/