Living abroad/delivering in the UK

[maswera]

Hi

I am currently living abroad & am 9 weeks pregnant. We are planning to return to the UK in late September, when I will be about 30 weeks. Since that's not really all that long before my due date I am wondering if I should somehow book in with my doctor before I get back so I'm in the system/registered with the hospital/whatever. Has anyone any experience of this? Is it necessary? How do you go about it?

Any advice or experiences appreciated - thanks!

Do you have a home address in the UK? You can use your parents' address, if you are going to be living there at the time of the birth. You need to be registered with an NHS GP.

Yes, I have a home address and am registered with a doctor there (assuming they don't take you off their lists if you don't go for a couple of years)

Hi there
Congratulations on your pregnancy.

Yes, I would definitely 'book' with your Dr to make sure you are able to have proper care when you return. I have heard people being turned away from hospitals late in pregnancy because they are 'full' for their particular due date. Also, not being able to to go their particular closest or convenient hospital because they didnt register around 12 weeks.

Perhaps phone them and see what they suggest.
Good luck!

Normally you are de-registered if you leave the UK for three months or more. But the rules are not super-strictly enforced. Give your GP a call - you will need to consult in person, I suspect, to make a booking/get a MW.

You need to check re gp - although we had asked to stay on ther books they were obliged to take us off after a while. If they have the local PCT will have your notes etc. Can you get back for a visit in the interim, so you know the system before you need it ?

Thanks all. Will contact the surgery and see what they suggest

Congratulations. How far along will you be when you return? Two points for you to consider.

Please be aware that if you do not have residency status (even if you've paid taxes and NI all your life) you may not be eligible for free treatment on the NHS. I had to return to UK to deliver at 35 weeks for personal reasons, was between homes abroad and in UK, eventually moved back overseas and unceremoniously landed with a bill for 3 grand by the 'overseas visitors' department.

Also make sure you have ALL your medical notes, as you may find that procedures differ widely e.g. my Doc identified that I was possible Group B Strep carrier, a test offered routinely here but not in the UK, and would not have been identified otherwise. Glad I had my notes, and a big yellow sticker was placed on my file for the necessary iv in labour.

Can you get someone to register on your behalf? I got my mum to nip into the health centre and book my first midwife's appointment so they were expecting me.

Even without much preparation, I have to say my experience was a positive one.

Agree with Bonsoir. You need to be careful and not say you live abroad. My GPs surgery will de-register if they know you are abroad for more than 3 months.
I live abroad and although I had DC3 and 4 here several friends returned to the UK to have their babies and had problems with the gps/hospitals. One had to jump through all sorts of hoops and take in her passport and evidence of when she'd been in the UK and the other was given a huge bill and told she had to pay privately as she'd not been a UK resident.

Don't want to scare you but please just be warned.
Congratulations on your pregnancy and good luck

UK NHS entitlement is based on residency, not previous tax and national insurance payments. If you become genuinely resident in the UK you are entitled to NHS treatment even if you have never paid into the UK 'pot'. Similarly, if you become non-resident you lose that entitlement, no matter how loudly you might moan in the DM from your Spanish villa. Those are the rules - I don't particularly agree with them - I personally think that you should transfer some of your existing health insurance if coming from eg an EU country with an insurance based system or a private system, and have credits for previous NI payments here or voluntary payments made whilst working abroad . But that's how it is. How can the NHS possibly support all those who are or become resident in the country whilst also having a potential liability to the huge numbers of Brits who live abroad and might pop home only to take advantage of its services? The balance of inward migration over the last 10-15 years has placed heavy strain on NHS maternity services. If the OP is genuinely returning and will be a UK resident from 30 weeks though, there is no legal issue. It simply remains to sort out the practicalities. As other posters have pointed out, you might find that the over-stretched maternity services here omit to carry out tests (Strep, CF carrier status etc) that are standard in other countries and provide a level of care and comfort that is somewhat inferior - personally as I have EU insurance I'd be going in the other direction!

Also, you need to check about travelling limits whilst pregnant. I had to lie about how pregnant I was to get back to the UK from France to have DS (although I was 8 months gone at the time).

Another issue is that if you are just coming home to have the baby and then going back to where you live overseas (I wasn't sure if you are permanently returning or just having the baby in the UK), you may put your non-residency status in jeopardy.

Therefore, if you sneakily claim residency even though you're not (i.e. by using parents address), to get free NHS treatment, you could end up with a tax bill far bigger than the hospital bill.

I'm not sure about the technicalities. It's just something flagged up to my H as he mentioned to his tax advisor that I was pregnant. Tax advisor said he'd had a few people whose wives had flown home to give birth (because they didnt have insurance here and it's all private) and came "under scrutiny" as to their residential status.

Please don't misread this as an attack on you, but why would you fly back to the UK to deliver a baby? I had my dd in Oman and have never had any problems with passports or visa's etc. Admittedly it was a bit more basic than the NHS but she is safe and healthy. A friend of ours lied about her dates in order to be able to fly 'home' from Tanzania, her dd had a two week window to be delivered in. Stupidly my friend insisted that her dd was delivered and had an induction. Her dd had a stroke while being delivered. I am not suggesting the same will happen to you but, unless you are living in the middle of a war zone please consider giving birth there.

Sorry, just re read your OP, it seems you are planning to return to the UK for good. Am I right?

Kreecher: if you are British living abroad and have a baby abroad, I do believe your children's children will not have British citizenship unless they give birth in the UK.

Maybe that's not an issue for you at all. I know people who've returned to give birth for this reason.

If a child is born abroad to a UK parent then, unless the parent is a diplomat or working for certain international organisations, it is true that the child's child (if you get my drift) might lose British citizenship if it too is born abroad. But (i) one might imagine that if the OP's grandchild is also born abroad then that would be for good reasons involving rights to citizenship of other countr(ies) and indeed a cultural and national 'tie' to other countr(ies) (ii) if we are talking about EU or certain commonwealth countries then one's right to reside in the UK will be unaffected despite having a different passport.

It would seem that the OP is coming back permanently in any case.

I'm not making a judgement either way. It's a piece of information not generally known that's all. I'm sure parents know themselves whether it's important to them.

Should have said: ..."will not have British citizenship unless they ARE BORN in the UK"

My dd has British citizenship, passport and birth certificate. She was born 9 years ago in Oman. When we lived in Thailand, several of my friends had babies, they all have the same as dd (albeit with a slightly bonkers astrological element to their hospital birth certificate)

Yes sure but it means that her children might not have it unless they are born in the UK.

Of course, it might not matter to you, I don't know. Just a heads up.

Christ I'm not trying to start an argument. You try to help. Forget it.

Sorry I read it too fast, my dd is not having children. No man is worthy to lay his grubby hands on her . I never knew that and will have to look into it when we eventually return to Britain.

That's good to know backtotalk.

My first child will be born outside the UK and I'd just assumed that as he will get a British passport, so would his children.

Ah well- he can worry about that for himself (and blame me when it becomes a nightmare)

I agree with backtotalk. I am Irish, dh is British although his mum is Dutch and he was born in Netherlands. DS1 was born in UK, has a British passport although could have had an Irish one as well. DS2 was born in Netherlands however as we were living there at the time and he was not automatically entitled to a British passport as he was second-generation born outside the UK, even though his dad had a British passport. There was a (fairly expensive) appeals procedure which could be gone through to possibly get a British passport but we didn't bother and got him an Irish passport instead. Hence why my sons, born of the same parents, have difference nationalities!

Only just seen all the new replies, thanks all. I will be returning to the UK permanently, but will check the details re residency status.

Kreecher, as for 'why would you fly back to the UK to delivery a baby?' - err, because I live in Malawi where maternal mortality rates are astronomical, there are only 2 doctors per 100,000 population and 10 times more babies die in childbirth than in the UK. Do you fancy that?

Again, without wishing to be combatative, my friend delivered both her two sons in Malawi.
Different strokes for different folks.