Lysithea

Good morning friends,

 

I'm currently 36 full weeks and a few days pregnant. This means, if our baby boy is punctual like his mommy, he will arrive in about four weeks, FOUR weeks! The final countdown.

 

I'm 8 months pregnant and will cover a few topics that I think will be helpful if you're an expat being pregnant in Portugal. I will briefly cover following topics:

 

This one is important for everyone visiting Portugal! There is actually a Portuguse law saying that pregnant ladies must be given priority. This was new to me, and people are treating me like a princess! They immediately give up their seat at the bus/train/tram. The cashier in stores let you pass the line and get in front. And in banks, stores, hospitals etc. you are enabled to grab one of those priority tickets. Thumbs up!

 

It's your choice if you want to make your check ups and/or give birth in a private or public hospital. A private hospital will charge you for each visit, and the public one is for free. We chose to make all our check ups and echos in a private hospital, but we will deliver in a public one. They say the waiting times are reduced in a private one, but unfortunately I cannot agree on that. Majority of our visits, we had to wait between 30 min up to 1 hour even though we had scheduled appointments - maybe we were just unlucky?...

 

This is the public health center in Portugal and you need to be registered at one in your neighbourhood. You will be given a health user number called "numero utente". One thing I just learned is that when you are pregnant you don't pay for any visits at centro saude - it's all for free! Ask for the documentation of this in the reception and show it each time you go there to avoid paying.

 

This is the social security system. Here you can apply for sick leave and maternity/paternity leave. There's an online portal where you can do most of your errands, but you may have to go to one of the offices to apply for the portal. OBS! Although you have priority being pregnant, priority tickets will finish within 30 min after opening hours - don't be late because queues are brutal here!

 

This is how I understood the parental leave, time will tell if I was right :) 

 

I have three options to choose from: 120 days 100% paid, 150 days 80% paid, or 180 days shared (150 mom + 30 dad) 83% paid. For Serge (daddy) it's mandatory to take 5 days immediately when the baby is born. Then he can choose 10 more days within 30 days from the birth. And if we choose the 180 days shared paternity leave, Serge will get his last 30 days right after my 150 days. We are totally going for the shared one! I now wonder how parental leave differs from country to country...probably a LOT!