Birth in Cyprus - Kellie's Story

From talking to other Mums here in Cyprus it seemed to me that so more people seemed to give birth in private clinics rather than the General hospitals.  I'm still not 100% sure why this is considering the difference in cost, this had made me worry that the general hospitals were that bad that people were happy to pay thousands of euros to avoid them. 

Even if I wanted to going private is just not an option for me, and paying thousands of pounds to give birth is something I could never imagine being able to justify to myself even if I could afford it.  So I was very pleased that in my request for birth stories to hear from several ladies who have given birth in the general hospitals (including the one I am using!) and all had positive experiences.

This is Kellie's story - she had her babies in the Famagusta General hospital, the same place I will be having mine.

I had both my children at the general hospital, it cost me €2 per check up – all blood tests and major scan were carried out at the hospital so I never needed to go private for anything. If I was able to have more children then I would certainly go back to the General.

There aren't any antenatal classes in Cyprus,  they believe that we should automatically know what to do! but once I had my first child they were very good in showing me what to do.  I was very happy with the after birth care with the nurses. They were very thorough and actually said that if I didn’t want to go home after 5 days I was more than welcome to stay!!!

What do you wish you had known about having a baby here beforehand? That they don’t do any drugs or gas and air!!!
Did you have a c-section or natural birth? I had natural birth with both my children – I was very close to having a c sec with my first but we managed to get there in the end.  I had to be cut on both my births but apart from that everything went pretty smoothly

Did you have any pain relief? Nothing – they offered me a Panadol for the pain but that didn't even touch the sides! Pethidine was available 

How long did you stay in hospital after birth? I had my son on the Tuesday and was out of hospital on the Saturday lunchtime, with my daughter it was 4 days. It was great!!! For the first 2 days I did nothing – the nurses cleaned, fed and looked after the baby. On the 3^rd day they showed me what to do, on the 4^th day they watched me like a hawk with what I was doing and the 5^th day they left me to it. 

With my 2^nd child they left me to do everything myself unless I asked them for help which they were really happy to do.

Were you spoken to in English or Greek? They spoke in English.

I have only had children in Cyprus but I have many friends in the UK that have had children and listening to their stories I would pick Cyprus any day over the UK!!