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French care for mothers giving birth could be better. My wife had to pay for a private midwife because the standard French treatment is to drug up the mothers a
by kremlin 13y ago
French care for mothers giving birth could be better. My wife had to pay for a private midwife because the standard French treatment is to drug up the mothers as a matter of course and perform c-sections something like 10 times as often as necessary. Maternity wards are basically treated like baby drive-thrus. In and out as quickly as possible.
Which isn't to contradict that French health care is good; just pointing out an area in need of improvement.
- shin_lao 13y agoIt really depends on where you get treatment. Healthcare in Paris is excellent (but you might get unlucky, sure), in smaller cities it might be harder to get an appointment with specialists.
- ronaldx 13y agoI recently heard that the French offer relatively few post-natal services in terms of baby care, but do offer vaginal exercise classes for new mothers: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/family/2012/02/postnatal_care_in_france_vagina_exercises_and_video_games.single.html http://www.slate.com/articles/life/family/2012/02/postnatal_... I found that representative of a great healthcare system: they are not just doing the minimum or the obvious or unnecessary 'nannying', but taking a holistic approach to postnatal care.
- Jare 13y agoIn Spain it seems the reverse: public institutions push the natural birth route much harder, whereas private clinics routinely perform C-sections or fully medicated or induced birth simply for their own convenience or to collect the extra money from the insurer. After the baby is born and all is well, public hospitals will assist moms to breastfeed if needed, whereas private places just want you out of there ASAP. If I want convenience and pretty flowers for simple procedures I'll go with private, but for anything serious public all the way.