Neighbors!!
Today I am doing a happy dance, because my friend Kolleen moved in a few blocks away last weekend. She has two sons, both a bit older than Palmer, and another one on the way.
Over coffee, and before we set out on our babysitting swap while each goes grocery shopping experiment, she informed me of two little shocking tidbits. First of all, here in Iceland, they are seriously trying to discourage people from having babies in hospitals. A mom can only stay 4 hours after birth, and in fact they pay if you opt instead to have the baby at home. I was shocked when she informed me of this, but actually it strikes me as a very liberal minded policy. Pregnancy ought not be treated as an illness.
The other thing Kolleen told me is that she has to get a letter every year from her landlord, her employer, and the mayor of the town she is living in, in order to renew her residency permit. Dude, that seems like total overkill. She's married to an Icelander, afterall.
Comments
No, pregnancy and birth aren't illnessess but I would never have dreamt of having my children at home. Just as well - both my daughters would have gotten braindamaged at birth, son probably would have been OK (all healthy and normal pregnancies). My sister's daugther would most likely have died. (well, actually she would probably have been moved to the hospital, since the birth didn't go very well. I wouldn't have with my daughters).
Too tired for my usual tirade about this, though :þ I normally get really worked up about this.
Is Kolleen planning on birth in Reykjavík or is this Reykjanesbær something?
If I ever have another, I would probably need a Cesarian, so hopefully they would give me a bit more recovery time!
Á Ísafirði fá konur að vera miklu lengur en í Reykjavík ef þær vilja og þar er stjanað við þær...
En ég þekki næstum engar konur sem hafa eignast börn heima, fyrir utan örfáar sem eru sérstakar áhugakonur um heimafæðingar. Langflestar fara á spítala.
Certainly if you want to tell someone off, it should be me, but this is what I was told and honestly am not that surprised to hear after our previous treatment at that hospital.
Good to have a neighbor Lizzy!
I guess this is like informing people that a pedophile has moved into their building.
Or like informing a stalking victim that their stalker is being let out of prison (or a mental institution, as the case may be).