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Pregnancy - treatment in France


Hells Bells
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Hi

I wonder if anyone can shed any light on the above for me.

My husband and I moved to France 5 weeks ago (permanently) and I found out last week that I am pregnant (six weeks or so according to the various calculators to be found on the web). We are not yet registered with CPAM, and don't have any forms E111 or E106 etc, largely as a result of never being ill and thinking it could wait. My husband is self-employed and as yet unregistered with the Chambre de Commerce.

The estate agent through whom we bought the house, recommended a doctor to us and we went to see him yesterday. Whilst extremely polite he basically told us to come back in 6 weeks or so (if I had not miscarried in the meantime) with our Carte Vitale.

Having had various friends who have been pregnant in the UK recently, this struck me as somewhat unhelpful. Shouldn't he have given me lists of things I am not supposed to eat, booked me in for blood tests and ultrasounds etc?

This is our frist pregnancy ever and I'm somewhat concerned!

Any advice as to what we should be doing gratefully received.

Helen

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Hi Helen and welcome! If you were working and paying full NI in the UK before moving to France you may be entitled to an E106 form which you take to your nearest CPAM and which give you recipricol health treatment for around 2 years. Phone Pensions Dept at Newcastle and ask them if you are entitled to an E106 - if not get them to send you a letter stating that you are not entitled and take that to CPAM. May help you get a carte vitale quicker (huh, but nothing is quick in France!).

Also, your husband, if he is working, MUST register! Either with the Chambre de Metiers (if he is an artisan) or with the Chambre de Commerce. It's an offence not to be registered in France and his cotisations (SS payments) will give health cover up to a certain percentage. Don't know if pregnancy gets full cover. Anyway, top-up insurance probably won't cover an existing preganacy.

In the meantime you will have to pay for any treatment, even visits to the Doctor (around 20 euros per visit). One way or the other you must get it sorted quickly.

Good luck..........helen

PS Sorry can't find telephone number at present......someone else may be able to help.

 

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Remember many mutualists do not offer cover for the first three months after you have joined them and will not cover anything related to pregnancy unless you have been with them for up to a year. However, once you are with the CPAM here, most pregnancy costs are covered anyway. It would be extras involved with your hospital stay that the mutualists wouldn't cover, that they usually would.

I was never told anything about what to do or eat. I did get all the blood tests done though, the important one being toxoplasmose (sp). If you haven't had that then stay away from soft cheeses made with lait cru. Wash any lettuce thoroughly in soak it in vinegar for a few minutes before drying it........ may be an old wives tale, but I was always told to do this. Don't eat uncooked meat (charcuterie) or raw fish and things like hamburgers from Quick and MacDo don't tend to be cooked through either. They say stay away from eating lamb too, although, here they tend to eat it slightly uncooked and I would always cook it through, as I prefer the taste.

And the other thing I was told to do was stay away from cats........ we had a cat,so I ignored that one.

I don't know how careful one has to be if one has had it though.

Eventually you will be asked by various places for your livret de famille, we do not have them, just keep telling them that we don't have them until they accept it.

And get onto Newcastle today. This needs doing now and good luck.

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I can't help with the securté social side but I've had three babies in France. Most people go and see a gynaecologist from the start (in fact from before) so maybe the doctor assumed you were going to see one too because he certainly didn't do the things he should have.

The important thing in France is the "declaration de grossesse" which has to be filled in before 14 weeks and sent to the CAF/ secu. Quite a lot of doctors in france accept a home test result and don't bother with doing a HGC blood test. BUT your doctor should prescribe tests for rhesus, toxoplasmosis and  rubella. if you aren't protected against toxo, then you will have to have blood tests every month. The doctor probably won't do the blood tests. he will send you to a laboratory to get them done.

There are three "standard" scans in france 11 wks, 24wks and 32 wks (more or less) A lot of gyns do a scan every month.

As for what to eat (or not)  The French don't seem to be as worried as the British. Try to avoid unpasturised milk products (if it doesn't say 'pasturisé' then it probably isn't) and be careful with charcuterie that isn't sous vide. Toxo can be caught from undercooked beef or mutton.

I never bothered with seeing a gyn until the last few months, and my GP dealt with my pregnancies (prescribing scans, blood tests etc) but it's not very common and many GPs have never had to follow a pregnancy.

If you have a PMI (protection maternelle et infantile) nearby, they would be the people to go and see. They can follow you through pregnancy and postnatally (both you and your baby)

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Hi

Thanks to all for the replies. Very much appreciated. Husband now has a mountian of soft cheese to get through....

I've now spoken to Newcastle and it seems that I'm probably not eligible for the E106 (too much time travelling - not enough time working). We're onto the Chambre de Commerce so fingers crossed that they're friendly bureaucrats and we can get that sorted pretty quickly.

Will start researching the rest immediately.

Thanks again

Helen

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Ah this is complicated. You may not end up joining  the CPAM, artisans have a different Caisse....... usually, sometimes, maybe.

So don't assume you will be at the CPAM.

Also, if you have no entitlement, then get Newcastle to send you a letter saying that you have no entitlement too, you may need this letter to give to which ever caisse you end up with. If you don't need it, well, it will be better to have it and not needing it, than needing it urgently and having problems getting it.

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One piece of advice - is be proactive - ask questions.  The french system of 'pregnancy' relies on the mother organising herself.  The french grow up with this system and seem to know exactly what to do/ask.  The English system works differently, you'll be sent appointments etc unlike France you will have to make them (in advance) ie. your scan appts will need to be made now.  I made this error and nearly missed out on my first scan.

Ask someone to try and explain the whole process to you in your area and explain any options.  There are two systems in France for having a baby one in a hospital and one in a clinic.

If you have any questions please feel free to email/pm me.

Deby

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It seems every experience is different and I never had to worry about booking scans as my gynae gives me one at every visit and from the 12th of prenancy onwards she gave me appointments for once a month.

It is probably therefore better to see a gynae than a doctor as gynaes are more clued up. They are more costly though. But I don't find it too expensive. It varies between 30 and 50 Euros per visit. The standard blood tests are not too costly but there are certain ones that are more expensive like the Trisomie 21 (Downs syndrome test)

I run my own business and I am not affliated with the CPAM as I had to go to a private company that does it.

And yes apart from telling you what not to eat and doing some blood tests, nothing else gets done until you pass the 12 week mark. Then you will be given the correct forms to fill in by your doctor.

A great website for parents in france is www.babycentre.co.uk and go to the community section and look under parents in France. It is very friendly and will help with all you questions.

CJ (34+3 weeks pregnant)
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I agree with Mistral that GPs are more than capable of looking after a pregnancy; they usually send you off to meet an obstetrician at 7 months. Since you haven't been in France for long, I'd think that you'd have problems finding a gynaecologist who would take on a new patient. If your GP feels that you have a specific problem, s/he will write a letter or phone directly to a specialist to make you an appointment which helps to accelerate the process.

Costs linked to your pregnancy are covered by the CPAM or equivalent. Your mutuelle, which as TU pointed out, requires you to wait for 3 months before kicking in, may cover the cost of a fews extras such as a single room (bliss, I can assure you) and, in some cases, hand you over a small lump sum when the baby's born (basically because your pregnancy hasn't cost them a cent.

Get your scan appointments sorted out; I had mine in one clinic and had my babies in another, gynaecolologists also do scans but have very full agendas. If you have your eye on a particular clinic or "maison de la naissance", now is the time to book a place for your due date (no joke). I felt slightly superstitious doing this for my first baby but when I eventually gave in to the pressure (girlfriends mostly) and called the "best" clinic in the area, I was laughed at because I'd waited 3 months to call and had to go and give birth somewhere else, which didn't actuallt turn out to be a problem.

Good luck, if you feel you want to ask any more questions, please feel free.

Katie

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks again to all for advice. We've now reached a satisfactory compromise and found a local obstetrician who we will be seeing for the first six months (and who we will be paying directly for the forseeable future...).

We couldn't find a PMI in the Haute-Garonne, but tried the CAS and the local hospital. The former only deal with babies, not pregnancies but did direct us to a local citizens advice bureau type organisation. The latter made an appointment for me with an obstetrician for mid-November. The appointment card tells you to bring along your Carte Vitale, soc sec number and medical notes. I think I have little hope of having any of these by mid-November but we shall see.

We have been to the Chamber of Commerce (and the Centre de Formations des Enterprises) who were helpful but left us feeling overwhelmed with the amount of information they wanted. Part of this was to decide which 'regime fiscal' my husband will be registering under, so he duly trotted off to see an accountant who has told him that he shouldn't be registering with the Chamber of Commerce but with the URSSAF as he undertakes a "profession liberale". We are now waiting for the forms to come from URSSAF and are undecided as to whether to cancel the next meeting we have with the Chamber of Commerce! We also passed by the CPAM who told us that actually we need to speak to the CMR if registered with URSSAF. Is it my imagination or is this a seriously over-complicated system?

I am beginning to feel like a dog chasing my tail and the only bright point is that the obstetrician did a very early ultrasound yesterday and we got to see the baby which was much more exciting than I was anticipating....

Apologies if this has turned into a bit of a whinge...having one of those days/weeks!

Helen

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