Maternity Leave in Tuscany

ItalianDreamer

New member
Hi all this is my first post on the forum, apologies if this is in the wrong place.

My wife and I are confirmed Italian devotees and love everything about the place. We've just had the fantastic news that my wife is pregnant for the first time, which has made us start to ask all kinds of questions about our future. One thing we are seriously considering is relocating to Italy. We both have high pressure jobs that are starting to wear thin and we're in a position where we could (just about) take 6-12 months on sabatical. With a hope that we would either then decide to stay and settle in Italy or return to the UK.

Are we nuts considering this with a new born baby?!

Neither of us speak Italian, but I don't see that as a major hurdle, my biggest concern is regarding access to medical facilities should anything happen with new born and the lack of a familiar support network. I've lived in Turkey for about 6 years and didn't really have any issues.

If we aren't raving lunatics and this could actually work, does anyone have any suggestions on where would be a good place to be, any tips or suggestions?
 
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Maternity leave in Italy

Buongiorno,

The medical care in Italy is excellent but it is definitely in Italian --- so though you seem to be pretty self sufficient, I would image that not having some who speaks your language to answer any medical questions might put an extra stress on having a baby. Or just having to learn everything real fast to accommodate your situation - would eem like you are going from one type o high pressure to another type of pressure.

I live here now and have done so for 24 years. I have always found the medical situation to be complete. I just had a friend who had a baby and she was a high risk maternity...and she was more than happy with the service she received - but she obviously spoke the language.

Yours,

Donna
 
Ciao ItalianDreamer,

As Donna has said, the medical care here is excellent but of course it is in Italian. There are also several bureacratic procedures to follow once you arrive - even if you're an EU citizen, I do believe you need to 1. apply for a permesso di soggiorno 2. because you need it to get access to the national sanitary care (known as ASL). It isn't super complicated but it does require lots of patience to deal with these public offices (and sometimes with people who don't care much about their job or performance on it).

There are also many private doctors, and many who will speak some English but that is more likely in Florence. For that reason, if you do want to consider the move over here to "check it out" while on sabatical with a newborn, I would recommend Florence as the place to be at.

Are you considering coming over before the baby is due or after? As a first time parent myself (S. is 3 years now), there is definitely an adjustment period to go throguh at first with a newborn, even if she's awesome and sleeps a lot. If you're serious about it, I would consider making the move before - and that means switching in high gear to getting it down as soon as possible so that you're settled in by the time baby comes ;-).
Otherwise.... I would suggest waiting until baby is around 1, when you can handle all the exterior requests on your time so that you don't go raving mad trying to deal with both at the same time :D
 
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