I have given birth to two kids while living in Malta, and I couldn't be more satisfied with the delivery process. In this post, I would like to share and guide you on what being pregnant in Malta means, what to expect and how to take the pregnancy into your own hands.
Private clinic or MDH service?
Mater Dei Hospital, please! Once I found out I am being pregnant, I went to the private hospital just around the corner from where used live. Being that it is a private hospital, I think I was expecting much more than they delivered! I went private for a few visits and when the time was for me to register at Mater Dei Hospital, I transferred all my doctor visits there. Here is why:
Service and caring
I can not compare the care the midwives showed in MD to the care the doctor showed at St Anne's clinic. I honestly had the impression that the doctor there is not giving the care needed to somebody who is pregnant for the first time. A few times, I went there and the only thing that was done was to check my blood pressure, hear the baby's heartbeat and measure my weight. I was not informed of the time when some of the tests needed to be done. The doctor actually wouldn't have advised me, if I didn't ask for myself. In the end, I still ended up not doing those tests, because I was already late. By the fourth month, when I had my first visit to Mater Dei, I didn't have my blood checked yet, and I was frustrated because of this. How come that private doctor, to whom I am paying more money for a better service is not guiding me properly? I didn't have my urine checked also, and whenever I was going to see the doctor, she was acting like she is seeing me for the first time. On the other side, the midwives in Mater Dei Hospital are amazing. They showed so much caring and kindness and they gave all the information needed to a mother-to-be. I felt the support and they simply made me feel good.
Money
On my first visit, I spent almost 150 euros. It was at St Anne's clinic, where I paid 40 euros just to talk to the doctor, 40 euros for the ultrasound and some extra for vitamins and pills. At MDH everything is free of charge, you just need to provide your payslip. So I gladly choose a better and free-of-charge service instead of a private clinic where I had to pay and I still didn't get the service I wanted.
Time
Well, you lose time waiting in the hospitals, one way or another. The waiting time is one of the big DOWNS in MDH. They will set an appointment, but you will see the doctor after a minimum of two hours. Those couple of times I went to the private clinic, I still waited for like an hour and a half. The advantage of the private clinic here is that you can make an appointment even in the evenings. In MDH the appointments are booked only in the mornings.
Information
Being pregnant in Malta, and everywhere else is very challenging, so I wanted to be informed the best I can. Sometimes I felt that the doctors don't share all the information, or that I was not informed always of what is exactly happening. For some maybe it is better, but for me, I like knowing everything concerning me, my health and my baby. Whenever there were some blood tests they just say everything is fine, but only after I asked them about the results. I had my anomaly test and that was the last ultrasound I did before I myself asked for an ultrasound at 37 weeks. It had been a while since the anomaly test and I really wanted to know how my baby is developing. What happened on that ultrasound is that they discovered that I have a bit too much water around the baby, and I needed to stay in the hospital for observations. Everything ended perfectly fine, but what If I didn't ask for that ultrasound? Also, in my blue ante-natal card, one of the doctors wrote something about rubella, without even telling me what it is about. It was a few visits after, that I discovered that I actually don't have a rubella vaccination, and I need to get one after the pregnancy. My point behind all of this is to follow everything and be well-informed about the whole process of the pregnancy. No one will care more than you do! Ask for everything you believe you need to ask. A great application to use is BabyCenter, a very informative and useful tool that I highly recommend to every pregnant woman.
Doctors
If you choose a private clink, for sure you will always have that one doctor. Mine was acting like she is seeing me for the first time each time I go. In Mater Dei, I've seen many different doctors who were all going under one main doctor, which I saw only once when he came for the visit after I stayed in the hospital for the observations. Almost every time I had a different doctor, and they were all following the blue ante-natal card. So never lose this! I don't mind having different doctors, because mainly what they do is to check the blood pressure, the urine, hear the baby's heart and if everything is fine set the date for the next visit.
Maternity leave
There are only 14 weeks of maternity fully paid by the employer and 4 more weeks from the government. That is something like 4 months of paid maternity, which is not enough in my opinion. The country is rich and they can do better, but for this society, 4 months are enough. With my first pregnancy, I managed to take around 7 months off, using all my vacation leave and one month as unpaid leave.
Everything that I shared here is from my own experience of being pregnant in Malta, which is different from others. Many of my friends would have something else to say about all of this.
Discover more about the Maltese lifestyle on Travel Story Post.
