Where To Give Birth-The International Dilemma

We are expecting our second child next June! (applause, three cheers, hip hip hooray!)

(Now to my thoughts)

Initially I wanted to get pregnant around right now so that we could give birth in France before moving to our next destination. We would speak French which would give me/us confidence in communicating my needs during and after pregnancy and we would have a European sophistication to our health care. Perfect plan, right?

Something came up. Our housing here in France is, well, small. We don't have any room for another little one in our current living quarters. We don't even have a private bathroom. Or a hall. Okay, how I really feel about this situation is I dislike it very much. We can't live in this particular 'home' and add to our family.

So, why not move to another location but stay in France? An apartment in this building will come open in May. We could have that apartment for May and June, but not July and August. With the baby due in June we'd not only have too small a space but we'd be homeless. Again, not good.

When Justin first brought up the idea of moving to our next destination early I was not for it at all. I had my mind and heart set on staying put for a year in France and having this baby in the imagined comforts of France. Then details of our situation here (as outlined above) started becoming clearer. I also realized the city we will live in next is very large and has French-trained medical professionals as a common rule since it was once 'occupied' by France and education is typically French. The cost of living is significantly less than France. We could get a place three times this size or more for the amount of rent we pay here. We have a large team in our future city that know their way around and could help us tremendously while we learn to live in our new home and with a new baby. And what mother doesn't cringe at the idea of giving birth and then packing up your life and moving to a different continent with a newborn and two and a half year old in tow? Wouldn't it be smoother with just one kid in tow, getting settled in a new home, and then giving birth?

I also just don't like it here. I may be entering that phase of culture shock where everything around me is horrible, but maybe it's just not a great place for us. Yeah, maybe I'm overreacting...I don't know it's hard to tell. But it's giving me more confidence in the possibility of leaving here before having #2.

Our country director will be in town next Monday and we'll get to talk things over with him. He and his awesome wife and daughter live in our future city so he'll have specific thoughts on the medical clinics, housing, language learning, etc. there.

Yet another honest edition of Megan's thoughts on this journey. What do you think?