Well the baby was finally born!! The UK doctors got the due date wrong - 6th of March and the Brazilian doctors got the due date wrong - 15th of March!!! I ended up having an emergency c-section which I was really upset about but I have a healthy happy baby boy so that is all that is important.

I wanted to give an outline of how everything went, as I have no insurance and used the public health system the whole way though. I was able to find lots of information about giving birth in Brazil with private care but nothing with public. This is based on my personal experience in Joinville, Santa Catarina.

1.                 Pre-natal care

The day I found out I was pregnant was a Saturday, so we had to wait until Monday for me to see a doctor. Fabio called around and for me to be seen and checked by a doctor it would have cost about R$300 or I could go to a lab and pay R$42 for just a blood test. Obviously we chose the latter!

They took some blood and the results were available in an hour. We got a print out of the results but even Fabs didn't understand if we were pregnant or not, we went back asked the receptionist who didn't understand either, checked with a nurse and we and the whole waiting room found out it was positive!

We were going to the UK in a couple of weeks, so we chose not to go and see a doctor but for me to be checked out when I got to the UK.  I did however buy some pre-natal vitamins which were R$32 for a month's supply

While in the UK everything was great and people were really helpful at getting me seen and "booked in". However the midwife did accidentally call me and start moaning she had a very demanding patient who was only here for 4 weeks form Brazil, not realising she had called me back instead!!! I managed to get a free ultrasound, folic acid tablets and was "booked in" to the UK system.

When I arrived back in Brazil, we went staring to my local posto de saude, which is like a health centre and we managed to get an appointment for the next day to be booked into the Brazilian system.

This appointment took about an hour, it was mainly getting lots of information, have a few quick blood tests and signing things to say if I didn't show up for appointments they would find me and follow up!! Which I highly doubt would happen!

I then had to go to the Municipal Lab to get extra  blood tests. They gave us a time to turn up - which they give to everyone, everyone turns up at the same time and it's first come first serve. This is how everything worked throughout y whole pregnancy. This would be my first gripe with the whole system, there is a lot of waiting as everyone has the same appointment time. Their justification is that so many people don't bother showing up, so by doing it this way the people who want help get seen and time is wasted on the people who don't show up.

The results were available a week alter and we had to go back and pick them up. This would be my second gripe, you have to do a lot of running back and to to different places for different things.

I went to the health centre for my first doctors appointment with my results, again there were lots of questions, she checked the results, listened to the heart beat. My appointment was at 1:30pm but I wasn't actually seen until 3:30 - again because they give everyone the same time. The doctor gave me an slip to get an ultrasound done. These were the only things I had to pay for. You basically get this paper approving that you need an ultrasound then you have to find a place to have it done.

My first ultrasound cost R$70, I got some photos, and all the details.

From then on I had appointments with the doctor every month. Again, waiting about 2 hours to be seen and having about 10 minute appointments where she would check results listen to the heart beat etc. I still had to go over to the municipal lab and do my blood tests, glucose test, urine et;c every trimester at the municipal lab, then take the results back to the health centre.

Once I hit the final month, I was going back to the doctors every week to check the heart beat. I had less waiting time with these ones, as I was put at the front of the queue. The doctor hadn't given me the "order" to do a Group B streptococcus (GBS) test which had to be done before the 37th week. By that point I was 36 weeks and 4 days, however there were no appointments available so I was late having it done. I managed to get an appointment at the maternity hospital for 7am on a Sunday morning. They put a rush on my results and I was able to get them by checking online an hour before my appointment with the doctor!!

Over all during the pregnancy I paid:

• R$70 for my first scan
• R$170 for my morphological scan. The place where I had my first scan had closed down. So I had my second at Lumius and was bit unsure of why this one was so expensive. However, I did get a DVD of the whole scan and the place was much nicer and cleaner. I got quotes from other places between R$160-220. I went with Lumius because of the free DVD!
• R$70 for my final scan, at Lumius again, so I think in general the morphological one is expensive
• R$32 for a months worth of pre-natal vitamins - I bought a load in the UK so I only had to buy 1 months supply in Brazil
• R$36 for 1 months supply of iron tablets. I was anaemic in last month. Fabs ran around and found the tablets were about R$60 but we managed to find a discount place where you didn't need a prescription, as they are only available in prescription.

2.                 The birth

I started having contractions on the Saturday - the day after my UK due date and a week before my Brazilian date. The contractions were really sporadic and coming from the front so I dismissed them as Braxton hicks. However on the Sunday, I was woken up at 2am with more contractions and they were becoming pretty frequent. I hadn't done any birthing classes (although they are available, by the time we looked into going to one, the only ones were past my due date) but from cast amounts of online research I knew I shouldn't go in until my contractions were for an hour, every 5 minutes, lasting a minute. Mine were averaging every 7 minutes lasting about a minute long. I got Fabs to call the hospital to see if I should go in. The woman said she wasn't sure and to come in!

I got to the hospital (Maternidade Darcy Vargas) and saw the triage nurse and waited to see a doctor. By this point my contractions were becoming less frequent, so I thought I would be sent home. I finally saw the doctor after about an hour. Some woman had gone in when they called MY name and had been admitted under my name! Which made me laugh as the Doctor's name was also Jocelyn, so I'm surprised they didn't have a conversation about having the same name and then realising it was the wrong person!

The doctor checked to see how dilated I was and it turns out I was 7cm! (10cm and you are ready to start pushing and deliver!) I was really surprised as the contractions were lest frequent. She said I was definitely not Brazilian as most Brazilians don't know when to come in and come in at 1cm dilated!

I was taken to the ward which was a  corridor divided into bays by walls with curtains but with open at the top. So it was private but you could still hear what was happening. Although, I don't the nurses and doctors knew, as they seemed to think it they stood out side the curtain and talked about the gringa she wouldn't hear! One of the nurses - Camilla spoke English and was lovely!

Fabs was running around for about an hour doing baby work, they gave me an ID bracelet and took my thumb print. The baby's heart beat was being monitored every so often and I was checked to see how dilated I was.  At 9cms I was told to have a therapeutic shower for 30mins but I got so hot that I came out earlier!

They then checked my dilatation again and the heart beat again. I was still 9cm and my waters hadn't broken yet. Then suddenly a lots of nurses came in and 2 doctors, one of them broke my waters and the other explained that the baby's heart beat had slowed down and I needed to have a c-section. I was devastated. The nurse told me to go and shower again because of my waters being broken. So I showered and the nurse get asking if I was ready, she ushered me in to the operating room where there was a whole tem of people waiting for me. Fabs was made to wait outside at this point. I hadn't realised how urgent it was until now, as there was this AWFUL woman who was shouting at me for tying and putting my robe back on, trying to jam needles in my hand and shouting at me for that. Fortunately one anaesthesiologist - Bruna spoke English was trying to explain things to me. I asked he to tell the woman to stop shouting at me, which she did but it made no difference! Bruna gave me an epidural - I think it was her, but again she was lovely explaining things to me.

By this point Fabs was suited up, they had put a screen over me and he came to sit with me through the procedure. It was pretty traumatic as I could hear all this beeping that kept slowing down and speeding up and I wasn't sure if it was my heart beat of the baby's then we heard crying and he was born at 14:55!!! He was cleaned up and brought to me for a minute, where he clung onto me and then when they took him away he grabbed the wires on me. It was heart breaking. Fabs went off with him to ve checked out while I was stitched up which took about half an hour.

I then went to the recovery room where I was supposed to stay for about 3 hours until I could feel my legs. At this point Seth was brought to me and he stayed with me. Fabs wasn't allowed to see me until I was in my room, I was ready but no one told the other sector so I didn't end up seeing Fabs again until about 7:30.

My room was with 2 other women and an ensuite shower and toilet. There were lockers, a sink in the room and a TV. Here you are allowed one person to stay with you the whole time and the baby stays with you as well. So not much sleep with 3 babies and 3 couples!

They also have a "milk bank" where if you are having problems you can go 24 hours day (even when you have left) and get help with breast feeding which was great.

Overall my experience at the hospital was great. The nurses and doctors (bar that one woman) were really nice and helpful, a few people spoke English but even if they didn't I understood most of what they said. The hospital even though it is a public one is supposed to be the best in Joinville including the private ones. I would say patient care wise it was great but it was old and could have done with updating. There were lots of broken tiles in bathrooms etc. But over all my experience was good. I went in on Sunday morning and was allowed out on Tuesday morning.

That weekend they had 80 births!!!

3.                 Some random side points:

•  I did yoga with Purna Shanti Yoga, which was amazing. I highly recommend doing pre-natal yoga. For me that was my only interaction with other pregnant women and while I couldn't always express what I wanted to say it was good to listen to what other pregnant women were going through as well.
• I had a birthing plan, we had a doula come and talk to us at my yoga class and she said for the hospital to actually take notice of your birthing plan. You need to have it signed by someone at the hospital and then taken to the Cartorio to be signed there as well.
• Be prepared for a lot of waiting around at appointments, lots of to-ing and fro-ing. I also found it ridiculous that to make an appointment at the health centre, we had to actually go there, you can't do it by phone!

 Overall, my whole experience of being pregnant and giving birth with the Brazilian health care system was good!! So far the after care has also been good!