The primary criticism of Spanish maternity care, both private and public, is that it is overly reliant on medical intervention. Yet for every horror story of women pressured to accept inducing or epidurals, there are happier accounts of good care in clean and calm wards. Giving birth in Spain is perfectly normal among foreign residents, and the culture is beginning to change in some institutions.

Comprehensive care including pre-natal, labour, delivery, post-natal and pediatric check-ups is automatically provided free under the public system. This includes scans, which are sometimes contracted out to private clinics.

Private plans cover maternity but usually only in the more comprehensive packages, and there are important exceptions and conditions (see Maternity in Private Hospitals, below). Once you find out you are pregnant, your GP will set you up with your antenatal timetable, which involves a gynecologist, midwife, scans, and tests (see Antenatal Care). Women over 38 will be offered amniocentesis. There is a high rate of elective caesarians here. In private clinics, the C-section rate is twice that of public hospitals.

Both public hospitals and private clinics might ask the father (or birthing partner) to leave in the case of sudden complications. If you wish your partner to be present under all circumstances, make it crystal clear to staff in your birthing plan.

What happens in hospital depends on whether you want a natural or water birth, or whether your pregnancy is shaping up to be normal (emabarazo normal) or potentially complicated (embarazo de alto riesgo). Casa de Maternitat, a specialist maternity hospital that comes under Hospital Clinic, is the most likely option for difficult pregnancies in the public system. Under private cover, clinics like the Quiron, Dexeus or Corachan are equipped with sophisticated technology in case of complications.

Home births are still regarded by many medical professionals as either dangerously hippy or some kind of masochistic throwback to Spain’s austerity years. But it is not impossible to find private gynecologists who encourage home births.

Generally speaking, mothers who have given birth vaginally and without complications can leave hospital between 24 hours to three days later. For those who have had complicated pregnancies or caesareans, a three-day minimum stay is the norm. The procedure once the baby has been born is to register in the Registro Civil within eight days. This is located in the Barri Gotic in Placa Duc de Medinaceli.