LIVING

“In the Sixties, after the Civil War, big hospitals were built and birth moved from home to hospital,” said Montse Catalan, an obstetrician who works at Migjorn Casa de Naixements birthing centre. “In the Seventies, the feminist movement in Spain had so much else to battle with after Franco that birth was overlooked, and by the Eighties the medical profession was using Oxytocin [a chemical to accelerate birth] and constant monitoring of foetal heart rate as standard. Because of the artificially stimulated contractions, and not being able to move from a bed, birth became more painful, and the epidural [a form of anaesthesia] rate peaked in the Nineties. Spain still has one of Europe’s highest epidural rates.”

In a hospital setting here there is not much scope for natural birth, according to Mireia Marcos, a UK-trained midwife who works at the Marenostrum Centre. “Many women [who want a natural birth] are frightened of what happens in the hospital, but there is not a wide range of choice,” she said. “There are only two hospitals here in Catalunya where you can guarantee that you can have a natural birth in vertical position. They are Santa Catarina in Girona, and Hospital de Vendrell in Tarragona. The Maternidad [in Barcelona] has a natural birth protocol, but in reality they have very few midwives who know how to deal with a birth without epidural.”

In a normal pregnancy, all that’s required to give birth naturally and safely is trained support and a comfortable setting, both of which can be provided at home. To prepare for a homebirth, the couple and midwife meet early on in the pregnancy and then every month, and it’s important that they build up a good relationship. At the same time, expectant mothers go either through the state Seguridad Social or a private health scheme for scans, checkups and blood tests.