Help please! Foreign wife of non-resident UK citizen, wanting to deliver in UK

[JayRadha]

Hello!

I'm a non-UK national, living in Africa with my British aid-worker husband. I'm 5 months pregnant.

I've been advised against giving birth in the country where we live and the country of my nationality. So we are looking into going to the UK, to stay with my parents-in-law, to give birth.

However, as I not a UK resident I am not eligible for NHS healthcare. I cannot find any private birthing in the area where I will be staying (Rugby, Warwickshire). And I don't even know what visa to try to get (maybe a "medical treatment" one, but I don't even know if birthing is considered "medical treatment").

We need to sort this out now as we need to put in the visa application. If we can't find a solution we will have to deliver here in Africa, even though it's not receommended.

Can anyone offer any help / advice?

Thanks
JR

PS - my parents-in-law live in Rugby, Warwickshire

You don't have to find a private hospital our nhs one bills patients not eligible for nhs treatment. If you phone the hospital in Rugby and ask to speak to the overseas admissions officer they will advise you.

That's what I was going to say, you can use the NHS and then pay for it, if you are not eligible.

Can I ask why it's not been recommended for you to deliver in this African country?

If you're married to a British national, I would think you qualify for the initial 2 year spouse visa which will be extended to an "indefinite leave".

Get your visa in ASAP, I know people who have had to appeal & been down to the wire with due dates!

You could get an independent midwife and have a home birth. Best of luck. Enjoy your birth!

Thanks everyone.

Yes, we're working on the visa and will submit it 2 months before the flight. I've had two UK visit visas before and never any problems, so it should be ok. As for the spouse visa, from what we can figure out it's only for people who are going to the UK to settle there, which we are not.

As for why it's not recommended here in Ethiopia, it's basically that in case things go wrong, noone really knows what the care is like. We're 80% sure that everything will go right, and 80% sure that it it goes wrong they would be able to handle it, but in the end we have decided, for the baby's sake, not to take the risk.

Jay