To ask if anyone lives on a small Scottish Island?

[NewStartFamily]

Specifically Eday or Tiree but thoughts and opinions of any others very welcome!

DP and I are considering a relocation from the south coast to Scotland, somewhere with land we can use.

We have found a couple of properties that we like but we’d like to hear thoughts from people who live there about how life works in the smaller communities and places where not everything is on your doorstep.

We have one home educated son aged 9 so nearby schools not an essential consideration.

It’s been fascinating reading this thread. Off the topic a bit but what do pregnant women do on the islands when they’re about to give birth? Home birth?
As someone who had two very traumatic deliveries and wouldn’t survive without specialist intervention during the delivery I can’t help but think of what help the women get and how quickly when things go wrong

You travel to the hospital well in time and stay in whatever accommodation you can get/afford. If labour commences earlier than expected helicopters and lifeboats come to your aid.

I live on an island, not northern Scotland and we have a full hospital. But we still have people who go to the UK for specialist appointments and fly over for the day or stay in UK, at own cost. There’s a helicopter for emergency transfers or the coastguard will help if that’s tied up.

Because the ferry is booked up. Sorry. Coffee had not been taken.

I remember quite a few years back (at least 10, probably more) around Christmas time twins were born prematurely on Lewis or Harris during a storm and two army helicopters with full medical teams in each went to pick up the babies and take them to Glasgow. The usual air ambulance would have been too light in the storm. One of the helicopters went back the next day to take the mother to her babies. The pilot saying something like "I'm a husband and father and I know how desperate my wife would be in this situation" when asked if that couldn't have waited until the storm had blown out.

I’ve enjoyed reading this thread too. Also started watching Highland Cops off the back of this thread - really is an eye opener.

Does anyone remember GentleOtter (I think that was her username) sure she had a thread on here about remote living and possibly the birth of her baby?

I would really support a two-tier pricing system for ferries. At present, all of us taxpayers are subsidising foreign tourist journeys on Calmac as the ferries are priced to road equivalent. Give the islanders the subsidised price. UK residents another bit higher price. Charge the American/Canadian/Dutch/anywhere else tourists the full whack.

Absolutely. Also the £2 bus fares in Highland region - why are we subsidising foreign tourist journeys to that level, and increasing the pressure on an already overloaded system? A friend's elderly aunt was due to go to Inverness for a scheduled hospital appointment the other day, and was turned away from the bus because it was full, mostly of tourists.

Of course. Scottish culture is naturally diverse and inclusive-based on the old clan system. Don't expect everyone to like you though-but that's just human (bitterness, spite, failure, envy, hate)-nothing to do with you being an immigrant. We're all immigrants-my folks came from Norway a thousand years ago

depends on the size of the island, bigger ones have maternity services, for smaller ones you would be off island ahead of your due date, or things like air ambulance come into play for emergencies.
Not just islands with the issue, areas of the highlands too, Caithness are wanting a move to a more Orkney style model where their is a consultant in the maternity unit, as currently the majority of mothers have to do the two hour+ trip to Inverness down the a9

I saw a clip with a pregnant woman on a Scottish island. The midwife came to visit her on a boat and she had her appointment on it. Not sure what her birth plan was.

Many pregnant women in the Highlands will decamp to a hotel or a family member or friend's house closer to a maternity hospital in the run up to their due date. That applies to women who live in remote-rural areas of Scotland as well as the islands. If you live in Arndamurhcan for example you'd need to drive 2.5+ hours to the nearest consultant-led maternity unit in Inverness (although there is a mid-wife led unit in Fort William). In an emergency you're likely to be transported to hospital by helicopter. I expect home births are more common, but as someone who had an unexpected emergency during my own second home birth I find that terrifying! (We had a good outcome because our nearest maternity hospital is 15 minutes away).

Babies have been born on lifeboats.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/1541699.stm

https://www.heraldscotland.com/default_content/12501976.oban-lifeboat-team-deliver-vessels-first-newborn-boy/

Interesting that Orkney has a consultant-led maternity service. Shetland does not, and I know a woman who stayed in Aberdeen in the run up to her birth for that reason. I hope Caithness gets a consultant for their maternity unit, but it feels like they have becoming more sparse for decades.

Absolutely. I also think freight and islanders should get priority.

Well. Overall, we need more fucking ferries, and we need them maintained.

He sounds like an absolute hero!

Choppered off Mull if an emergency. Into Oban very quickly, or Glasgow in about an hour and a half if more serious. Applies to any emergency, not just pregnancy. I know a number of people who've been flown to hospital. One even works on our farm. He injected his finger ( accidentally) with sheep medicine ( sheep jumped at the wrong time) and he's diabetic, so an emergency. He was being operated on in the Glasgow Southern General within a couple of hours.

I get that, I really do but when I had my home birth emergency I was very pleased to be just fifteen minutes by road from the nearest consultant-led maternity unit, or I would have lost my baby.

I have noticed OP that you don't seem to be taking much notice of people's warnings and you just shrug them off. I think you're here to have lots of people go 'FAB - GO FOR IT'! and just want to stick fingers in your ears. Please think of your son and not your romanticised island dream. You can move there when he's grown up.

I think the OP is long gone. But the conversation continues to be interesting (to me, anyway) - we can just keep going. It's great hearing all the different perspectives - I'm surprised how many island/Highland people there are here to join in!

Kerrera residents have priority and can (and do) jump the queue but the Kerrera ferry is the smallest in the Calmac fleet and it just keeps going back and forth until everyone who waits at either end is across.

I’m nowhere near Scotland but I have found this thread very interesting! Love hearing experiences of people who live remotely

I remember Gentle Otter, she was in Perthshire somewhere if I remember right.

Glad someone else has remembered her! She was lovely and shared some amazing photos iirc