Giving birth in seychelles – Part 1

Last Updated on June 2, 2023 by Roslin Dwivedi

(The story of getting a human into life is quite big, so my story of giving birth in Seychelles is published in two parts). My friend E suggested me to write the blog Giving birth in seychelles for our fellow expats in the Seychelles and to inspire more women for natural birth around the world. Because this is one hell of an experience a woman goes through.

Any parents planning a baby would like their child to have a healthy environment and away from the difficulties of life, financial problems and conflicting issues between parents. We all hope to have a good life for the baby, and we want to be there for them in all sorts of situations. I mentioned in my previous blog about how good life is in Seychelles — describing how local life is quite fantastic over here, how life goes more calmly than any other place, how we fell in love with the place. The climate is a little warm for us but other than that the place is full of greenery. The air is fresh and pollution-free, no hustle and bustle of city life, laid back and quiet streets.

It’s an ideal place for the parents to plan a baby, to give the baby pure air and a healthy environment.

Becoming parents

We decided to have our baby after spending two years in Seychelles as a couple. By seeing our lifestyle, office timings, we were able to give the time needed to plan for a baby. 

But if you live on an island, one more thing that comes into consideration is healthcare and in case of pregnancy, antenatal and postnatal care. 

We were sure that giving birth in Seychelles would be fine. Because we had heard in general women had more natural births compared to caesareans. 

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When we arrived here, the population of Seychelles was 90,000; and it was much less before. The goal of the Government and health department was to control as infants death rate and to provide mothers with good antenatal and postnatal care. But also there’s another side of the story, girls getting pregnant as soon as 15 years of age is quite common here, having kids without marriage or before marriage is common in the culture. There is also a financial support system in place for single mothers having babies. 

I feel these factors have made it very supportive for the women to have children in this country. In most cases, we have heard that most pregnancies have been smooth. 

However, for any other medical treatment, most people would prefer to go out of the country, and that’s why even for pregnancy, they are not sure about delivering a baby here. They all end up going to their home country to give birth. 

The dilemma of choosing natural over caesarean 

I know a few women who underwent a C section while giving birth, but I never wanted to have that for myself. Also, like everyone else, I am afraid of operations or surgeries, even just hearing about it gets me goosebumps. And when I knew that I would have a better chance of having a natural birth here in the Seychelles, I didn’t want to miss the opportunity. 

My friends delivery in Seychelles 

My friend E and her husband moved to Seychelles two months after us. The pregnancy news came as a surprise, but at their stage of marriage, they were ready for the baby. She loves her husband very much and couldn’t go to India for her delivery, thinking of not having him next to her on the day of the birth. They were also one of the convincing factors for me to have a child in paradise. She and her husband decided to have their child here because of the same reasons as ours. And they got through all the ups and downs together and gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Giving Birth In Seychelles

Her delivery was natural. The baby came out healthy, and my E came out from the labour room with a baby and a big smile on her face. I can never forget that moment going through all that she had a smile on her face and why not, after all now she had a beautiful result in her hands.

I wanted that for me: a healthy child and a healthy mommy.

Hospitals and Enrolment

There are small hospitals in each district around the island. Literally with two or three rooms with only a few necessary facilities. 

We had never been to the one located in our area (Baie Lazare area ). The description of the hospital by a friend was enough to scare us. It looks like a small house converted to a hospital, with wooden benches laid outside fo patients, a small reception opposite to the benches. When you go inside, you can see three rooms on the left and one room have a curtain in between to make 2 rooms out of one: the paint, the benches the TV, the fan, the notice board everything dated. And we never wanted to go there for checkups fearing no good can happen.

The suggestion from the friend was to go to the main big government hospital located in Victoria for all my pregnancy checkups. The whole program was supposed to be cheap, cheaper than we could have done in India. But when you are pregnant for the first time, you happen to do many things unknowingly and sometimes fearfully. 

And fearing the treatments in a government hospital, we were running to the private clinics getting my self checked, which made my initial checkups and ultrasounds expensive. And the bummer was, after a few checkups, the private doctor also said we should get ourselves enrolled in the Victoria hospital because, in the end, all the baby’s get delivered over-there on the island. 

There was no escape from the government hospital. We had to choose it. After all that expensive checkups, now the chase started to get the recommendation from any seasoned private doctor to recommend me to the Victoria hospital. So we don’t have to go to the small hospital in our district. But we learned in Victoria hospital from the first trimester till the end of pregnancy, the checkups should happen in the hospital in our district, and only for ultrasounds and baby delivery, I was supposed to go to the main hospital.

We were pregnant for the first time had no idea how the pregnancy checkup goes, what all check happens with midwives, not doctors. How soon we should be there at the hospital. After a few rounds we learned even if we have an appointment, we have to wait for our turn because of its mostly first-come, first-serve basis and people over here starts their day early. Anyways, After so much running and effort, we have to follow the enrolment rule. Still, we were so tensed, so they gave us another hospital located in Anse royal, which is a good hospital which at least looked like a decent hospital from outside and also a bit close to our place. 

So now things were clear I was supposed to go to Anse royal hospital for my regular pregnancy checkups and Main hospital in Victoria for Ultrasound and delivery of my baby. Pheww..

To be continued.