Homebirth in Brazil

Hi

A homebirth package usually costs between 5800 to 7200 reais give or take.  The pre care is a wonderful experience where the nurses come and check the baby's heartbeat and talk to you.  Give advice on what activities you should do as a couple and all.

However when it was time for the baby to arrive and the water broke, they tried for over. 12 hours to start the contractions, when we were unsuccessful  as a last minute emergency we had to rush the hospital.

Until than we had no experience in dealing with the hospitals here in Florianopolis at all, however the nurses had given us the option of a private maternity clinic where the cost was about 11,000 reais give or take which they expected us to pay on top of the package we had purchased from them. 

Hence we took a leap of faith and went to Hospital Unviersitario instead, which was a government hospital.  That ended up being the best decision we made, the service was amazing, clean rooms, and attentive staff that spoke basic english (not all but you can say 1 in ever 5 people did).  The doctors tried there best to ensure and respect our wishes for a normal delivery, they remained patient for about 12 hours, however when that wasn't possible they rushed us for an emergency cesarean.

And around 530 AM in the morning we welcomed our baby boy into the world.

We stayed in the hospital for a total of 3 days and then were discharged, upon that time I inquired with the doctor for the amount of fees we needed to pay and she looked at me with a shock on her face and said that we are providing s complimentary service on behalf of the government of Brazil.  Hence you are not going to pay a single reais. 

Instead what we did was buy a few boxes of chocolate treats and cakes and distributed those among the staff.

Afterwards we have recommended H.U. To a few families and as a matter of fact one of those families came and delivered there 2nd Brazilian baby boy in H.U.  Recently.

I hope the above information is of help and if you have anymore questions please feel free to let us know

What are your reasons for preferring home birth? Is it because of the money involved or what? As far as I know, home birth may not be the safest because of limited experience on the part of the mid-wife(s) should there be complications. You can find a way around accessing the public health system without paying a dime.

I would prefer homebirth, so that I can be in an environment where I am able to relax better. I am not a big fan of medical settings.

Do you mean to say that there are there no qualified specialized home birth midwifes in Brazil?

Regarding hospitals: Someone else on this forum wrote that she gave birth for free in a public hospital. I will be in Brazil on a tourist visa, and want to give birth there to get residency. If I would want to, would I be able to give birth in a public hospital (for cheap, or free), or is that just for citizens?

To be honest, I don't know any home birth center here in Brazil. As for the giving birth free, it is possible to access the public hospital while on tourist visa. Which state do you plan to stay here in Brazil?

Guys

Let me clear the air here. 

First of all please note that delivery in a government hospital is free for all people, even if you are on a tourist visa. The medical care provided does differ from hospital to hospital however atleast in Florianopolis and its neighbouring cities the care provided for mothers and babies is pretty good.

As far as homebirth is concerned, it is important for you to ask the right questions, for example what is the experience of the midwives.  The homebirth team that we had went with consisted of all nurses that worked in the government hospitals with some of there team members having experience of more than 20 years even.

Of course home birth will cost.  And the basic prices I have mentioned above.  There might be some that are cheaper as well however experience, availability and dependability counts!!

I can recommend a few good midwives in floripa, if you are interested. Yes, it is a good option if the hospitals scare you. Especially if you are having a normal pregnancy, you can easily opt for it.
The UH is very good, but they do not have any spaces nowdays. Floripa is a small city and a lot of people have come here and not gone back.  And recently, they ( at the hospital )  have started turning a bit irritated with the number of tourists who turn up.  The hospital has put up a sign saying that it is completely full and only able to take emergency cases. I would recommend a plan B always.

i am planning to be in Florianopolis.

Nice place  to be. If you will consider giving birth using the free public health let me know so that I can guide you on how to access it. Presently, I am assisting a family that came from Dubai for the purpose of giving and getting the permanent residence. Although the hospital personnel said that the hospital is filled up but they will transfer her to another hospital with the ambulance if she was due to put to bed that  yesterday.

My point is that is it not a custom for hospitals to turn pregnant women away, especially when the patient is referred by the local health center, without making adequate arrangement for where the patient would deliver. They do all they can to satisfy the patient because at the end of the day, a letter would be sent to you by the health center to notify you that the government paid for the services you received and request you to rate the services of the hospital.

I wanted to send a copy of the letter here but unfortunately the image section here only accept URL.

Hi Cj

If you are "assisting" the family out of the goodness of your heart it is a very good thing.  We need more good people like you in this world.

Furthermore what I believe has been said by Soei5 is accurate however the details were not stated clearly.

First of all there are 2 government hospitals in Florianopolis that have a maternity wing and those are HU - Hospital Universitario and Maternidade Carmela Dutra.

Yes what Soei65 wrote is accurate that HU is overfilled as of now however the fact that was not mentioned is that the notice on the hospital stated that although the hospital is full they will treat and admit every patient possible which will qualify as an absolute emergency, or else they will be asked to either goto UPA (Unidade Pronto Atendiemento) or to there area's Posto De Saude. 

Furthermore the 2 wings which will still accept patients are Maternity and Pediatrics.  However for Maternity they will only admit the patient when some specific conditions are met, such as

1.  Contractions have started
2.  Her water broke
3.  She has completed 40 weeks (sometimes they even accept the patient upon completion of 39 weeks)

Of course the patient might have to wait a bit but that is completely normal. 

In terms of Carmela Dutra there is no such sign posted up and the hospital is handling situations on a case by case basis.

There is a 3rd option available as well and that is if the parents might be willing to head 20 minutes away from Florianopolis they can always goto Hospital Regional - Sao Jose.

Overall the above 3 mentioned options are all free of charge and the in patient care is decent, furthermore they will support the parents in there choice of either going for a Natural Birth or a Caesarian without forcing them to go for one or the other

Regards

Stanza

Hi Stanza,

I appreciate your detailed info about the hospitals in Florianopolis region. Since you are in that environment, I believe you have a handful of info about the operations there.

As per the "assistance", it's absolutely free of charge. The only charge I will consider in the future would be the cost for the RNE documentations and application to the Policia Federal. As that is my area of specialization.

Hi Cj

I only know about the way things work because I came here and went through all the steps by myself. 

The only assistance I had was from the late Mr. James Woodward and his incredibly detailed Posts that reassured me that all the processes can be sorted without having to pay anyone to run around as things although sound complex they do end up being quiet simple.

Wishing you the best of luck and please do keep on sharing info as the more details are present on the forum the more better it is for everyone

Tchau

No problem bro. I will keep doing so. Take care bro.

Tchau..

I would like to add to stanza's post ....

The hospitals themselves  will decide about the normal or c sec , only . The patients really do not have a choice as the hospitals only do a c section if it is really required. It is a given that these hospitals are all for normal births. Which is the best part about it.

Hi soie5,

You are very correct! The doctors are in the position to decide the best birth procedure.

How did this go for you?  My wife and I are considering the same thing!

If you are considering coming to Brazil for birth, come to floripa. I can help you with the process.

Do you have contact with qualified midwives?

That would be great to have someone on the ground that could help us directly!

Yes I do. Inbox me.

Hello!
Thank you for the info. Which hospital in Florianopolis it was for your delivery?

Hi

I'll be in Florianopolis soon..

The wife is planning to give birth there.

Great. I can guide you to the best person so that you get the best help.
Whats your name?
What is your nationality?
And exactly when will you reach. You can inbox me.

You will need to find a midwife, pure and simply. They call them "Parteiras" here, although they are not as available as they once were.

Hi cjpounds

Do get in touch with me.

***

Cheers

Hi FloraFauna,

I found this thread and was curious if you decided to go with Florianopolis homebirth? I am doing my research on the same option right now and would love to know if there is a place I can read about your experience there?

Thank you

You are looking for a "Parteira" this is an occupation whose practicioners are languishing. You will find them mostly in Rural areas. 

They existed once upon a time because practicioners with a License ( MDs ) were hard to come by.  So the parteira came into being, borne out of the necessity in underserviced areas. 

Florianopolis, and for most part , Santa Catarina, have so much of a good public health care system that you will be sent on a wild goose chase to get your bi-lingual parteira.

You will end up with a hospital.

Hi
I'm Kim from Iran. I wanna give birth to my baby in Brazil... but not now... in 2021... but i'm a little nervous because i dont know anybody there... i read your messages ... i'm really appreciate if somebody can give me some advices about the renting a furnished apartement and a good doctor to check me and the baby and of course a good veterinarian because i wanna bring my dear cat to Brazil too!
And this is my phone number... i can get your advices in Whatsapp too
***
Thank you and lots of kisses from Iran

Interesting

Please contact for midwife at Florianopolis Brazil... Need assistance on current procedure

Kindly share contact with me.. moving to Florianopolis Brazil for first child delivery this month

These posts are older. You may want to begin a new post on the forum.