Moving to London 2 months before due date

[Smyys]

I'm expecting a baby girl due on June 3rd 2014. My boyfriend and I are moving to London in April 2014 because of his job.

I'm from Denmark and I'm only familiar with our own national health system. Do you have any information and/or advice on how it works in the UK? How often do you go to see a doctor when you're pregnant and how often do you see a midwife? And how about when the baby is born, do you also have someone coming to your house to check up on how the baby is doing? And do you meet in groups of mothers and babies (weaning groups?)?

I'm excited to move to London but I'm also a little nervous because the baby is on its way and there are loads of new things that we/I need to figure out before she is born =)

www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/antenatal-midwife-care-pregnant.aspx

There's info here.

I didn't see a doctor at all during my first pregnancy/birth. The frequency of midwife visits increases as your due date approaches - think was scheduled as 32 weeks, 36 weeks, 38 weeks, 39 weeks, 40 weeks, but things may have changed so the info above may be more helpful.

A paediatrician did the newborn health check. Once I was home (after one night in hospital) I was visited by the midwife the first day home, then 2 days later, and then a couple of times more until 14 days post-partum, when the health visitor took over. Health visitor came once, did the newborn hearing check and also gave me information on post-natal mother and baby services available, and on location of weighing clinics and so on.

Had fewer visits post-natally with susbsequent babies.

Hello Smyys
I think Pooka has summed it up quite well. You will usually see a midwife unless you are seeing a doctor "consultant" privately or you are a high risk pregnancy. You will need to register with a local GP practice, and they will sort out the process of putting you in touch with a midwifery team at the hospital.
You will be visited at home by a midwife until both you and your baby are "signed off" essentially as healthy and well. This is usually when the babies birth weight is back up to normal levels, they are feeding well and you have no health issues. In rare cases this takes longer than 2 weeks and they may hand you over to the local health visitor team. You would usually visit a clinic for any further checks and regular weigh-in's for the baby (though these are not compulsory. The clinics are often run at a GP practice and your baby will be vaccinated there.

Have you considered that 2 months is not very long to go though - you may not even be allowed to fly to the UK. It's a long drive when heavily pregnant. Even if I spoke excellent English I think I would prefer to have my first child in my home country and travel when we are both mobile even if my husband was not going to be there for the birth. New babies are surprisingly easy to travel with and you will benefit from the support of friends and family. Your husband may not be allowed much time off as a new employee.

There are local NCT (National Childbirth Trust) groups in most parts of the UK and you can join the charity and arrange to attend meet ups. The charity runs pre-natal classes (circa £250) on a local basis and attendees usually have due dates around the same time, so most people attend (finances permitting) in order to meet other first time mums. The local representatives will put you in touch with other members if you do not attend though. Many people relocate shortly before or after a baby and use the local NCT group to meet up.
Your health visitor will also give you lists of local mother and baby groups that you can attend.
Otherwise, attending various mother and baby classes for music, story time at the library etc is a good way to meet people.

Do you know what part of London you both wish to live in? Lots of people post on Mumsnet Local sites to arrange meet ups when they move to a new area and don't know many people.

Re the NCT. I joined when I had my first dc - and it was good for the last month or so of pregnancy. But we never really gelled as a group postnatally. It just so happened that the health visitors attached to my GP surgery ran a postnatal course from the clinic once a week for 8 weeks. I started that when dd was 6 weeks old and remain friends with the postnatal group 10 years later, seeing some very very regularly and everyone every 6 months or so. It was invaluable - better than NCT in that we all had dcs within a week of each other and had a set time each week to see each other in early days. The course covered feeding, continence, sleep etc.

Do you know where in London you will be living? There are lots of London based (or ex-London based) MNers who could give you advice about particular areas too for hospitals, groups, etc

I would sign up with the nct now for a course so that you have a chance of ready made friends when you move here. it will also give you a good idea of how things work here.

They get booked up very early but you'll hopefully still be able to book.

When you arrive in the country you need to sign up with a GP surgery immediately. They will then refer you for a 'booking in' appointment with a midwife. This will most likely be at whichever hospital you have chosen although sometimes midwives will run clinics at the Dr's surgery.

You should research which hospital you want in advance so you're not just sent to the nearest by default. Most hospitals will have a have a 'midwife lead unit' for uncomplicated births, birthing pools and limited pain relief. If you're sure you want this then it's worth trying to be referred to a hospital with a decent sized MLU. You'll always have the option to transfer during labour if you need more help or want an epidural.

You also have the option of a homebirth which I would choose even for my first given my time again. London hospitals are so overrun that they'll often try to send you home if you aren't in established labour and, as mentioned below, you don't really get cared for postnatally anyway so you might as well be at home. Home births mean you have two midwives and don't just get left to it. If you need to transfer to hospital you can and it's automatically done by ambulance.

Midwives will come and see you at home for a week or so after the birth to check you're ok.

Postnatally on the ward you'll be lucky for (overworked) midwives to have much time for you so if you want to breastfeed you should research it yourself beforehand and know where your nearest 'breastfeeding cafe' is which is just a groups staffed by volunteers who will help you if you need it. The NCT will often help you with breastfeeding phone lines and possible visits too.

Sure Start centres often run the sessions with the health visitors (who you'll be discharged to when the midwives are finished with you) where you can get the baby weighed, ask questions and meet other mums at groups like 'weigh and play' and baby massage.

I hope that helps!

Hi Smyys,

I moved to London from the US when I was 6 months pregnant. I agree with much of what's already been said, but the finer details do often depend on your area. Here in SW London, for example, postnatal services seem really stretched. I just got one home visit from a midwife (the day after returning from hospital), and one home visit from a Health Visitor (a week or so later, IIRC). Other routine postnatal checkups were done at a local clinic.

My prenatal checkups alternated between a GP and a midwife, every 2 weeks for the 3rd trimester. My local GP surgery and midwife team was quite big, and I almost never saw the same person twice.

I found that the NHS pre- and post-natal care was very... I can't think of the right word... uniformly structured? Everyone has the same packet of notes, every appointment is written up on a specific form, everything is signed off with the right box ticked. I had a routine pregnancy and during appointments the midwives spent more time filling in my paperwork than they did actually looking at me.

In contrast to this, though, was the incredibly Byzantine network of midwife teams and maternity units and GPs and Health Visitors. 'Midwife team A is based at hospital B and operates a clinic at GP surgeries C, D and E every second Monday'... 'your Health Visitor team are reachable on this number or at drop-in sessions at the local community college from 9-12 on Fridays''.... I sort of trundled through it in a daze. I always knew when and where to go for my next appointment, but that was about it.

It was generally fine, but not very personal, and sometimes frustrating; whichever practitioner you're seeing each time rarely has time to read through your bundle of notes, so they end up asking you the same questions over and over. I must've been asked at every appointment 'have you had your whooping cough vaccination?'. Not a big deal, but what's the point in filling out all those forms in triplicate if no one really gets a chance to read them? I expect it's more about forming a papertrail in case anything goes awry, but I did miss having a single OB-GYN who oversaw my entire pregnancy.

Given the whole structured approach thing, be prepared to explain over and over why you're 'booking in' so late (your 'booking' appointment is your first, usually at 8-12 weeks, and involves them taking a medical history and blood tests etc). What with registration faff and whatnot, I didn't actually 'book in' until 28 weeks, and since this meant that a good portion of my notes were blank then I was often asked about it at appointments. Not in a bad way; it's just unusual, I suppose.

I brought all my medical notes from the US, but no one was very interested in them, and I had to have my basic blood-tests redone, and also have another ultrasound scan when I booked in (despite already having had 3 in America: dating, nuchal, and 20-week).

Good luck! Registering with and seeing a GP will set everything into motion, so, as others have said, make that a priority as soon as you arrive.

Yes - much depends on your area. I'm in south east London suburbs (though according to many, not in London but in Kent but that's a whole different thread). Here I found the post natal support brilliant once out of hospital. I was only in hospital for one night with dd, 3 hours with ds1 and had ds2 at home. It felt each time like I was part if a very well-oiled machine - though I was lucky to have excellent continuity of care. With dd and ds1 I was registered with a group practice and saw one of 4 midwives on rotation and they were delivered by two of the four.

With ds1 I was at a different surgey. Saw one midwife and she delivered ds2 at home (assisted funnily enough by one of the midwives who had delivered dd 7 years earlier).