Going back to UK to give birth

[MatildaGC]

Hello! Does anyone have experience of living abroad and going back to UK just in time to give birth? Namely, will they let you use the NHS or charge you for everything? If so, how much did you pay? I am British but have lived abroad 10 years. I have my UK address still and my NHS number and I'm registered at my GP there in UK. I visit UK every year and have seen a doctor there a couple of times over the years. THANKS !

You have to pay if you haven't been resident for the past 12 months, so yes. It's essential you get antenatal care and they will need to see your notes. My cousin has done this and it cost circa £5k each time for a straight forward birth, far cheaper than where she lives!

@MatildaGC
I think it depends where you pay your taxes.
If you don contribute at all in UK, i doubt you will be entitled to free care like a resident.
Maybe call up the NHS to ask?
But i think @movingonup20 is correct

You will need to pay because you’re not ordinarily resident in the uk.

Interesting! Thanks !

When I returned from abroad, I just re-registered at my GPs no problem, didn't have to pay (although I hadn't been away for as long, and I wasn't returning to give birth).

Sounds like quite a stressful thing to do though? Any particular reason for returning to give birth?

What’s wrong with giving birth where you live? Not free?

Nothing to do with taxes, it’s whether you’re “ordinarily resident” (which it sounds like you’re not). I’m sure there are plenty of people getting away with not paying - in fact I’ve heard stories of people telling hospitals they need to pay for treatment but the hospital had no idea how to charge them! If you’ve been registered with a GP and seeing them then you presumably ought to have been paying for that.

If a straight forward birth costs 5k on the nhs I would go private tbh as only a couple of k more and more "convenient" obvs only relevant if you're near London or other private hospitals.

Ah, good old health tourism

Can you afford it if you need an extended stay or a c section or if your baby needs to stay in?

If you make a permanent move to the UK then you’ll be covered by the NHS when you arrive. It’ll be obvious that you’ve only just moved there because you won’t have any UK pregnancy records. I guess they would then ask questions. I don’t know if they ask for proof if your intention to stay.

Where do you live? How soon before the birth would you travel? You can’t fly after around 35 weeks. You also can’t fly with a baby until they’re 2 weeks so you need to plan for a couple of months there.

I’ve recently given birth abroad. When I announced my pregnancy a lot of people asked if I would return to the UK to give birth. Funding aside, I think it would be a logistical nightmare.

it's free, but I want my daughter to inherit full British citizenship rather than just 'British by decent', which is what you get if you are born overseas. She wouldn't be able to pass that on to her own kids necessarily. Plus I'd like to be close to my family.

sorry that last one was for @GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat

@MatildaGC

Not true, as long as you process a uk passport before she's an adult and has children, your child's children will have full U.K. citizenship too. You can also get a uk birth certificate via the embassy. My dd was born overseas and is a dual national.

I work as a receptionist at a hospital and one of the things I have to do when checking people in is ask if you’ve lived anywhere other than the UK in the last three years. If you say yes, I have to inform the overseas patient team who will then come down and chase you up whilst you wait to be seen or else send you a letter announcing you may be charged for treatment. Not actually sure what happens if you lie though 😒

OP i was planning on doing this because I wanted to give birth in a language I spoke! It's worth noting that you need a backup option, unless you're planning on being in the U.K. from about month 4. If something goes wrong with the pregnancy you need help where you are. It's not a fun thought, but with one of mine this happened to me. It all worked out fine in the end, but travelling was completely impossible - I was on bed rest for 3 months. So plan for the U.K. but don't forget to have a backup - not having one makes the worst case scenario even worse.

Op - is the baby's dad British? As if not, then I think you're right and the baby only gets British by descent (disclaimer- it's a while since I did nationality cases).

That's me staying put then.

I wanted to come back month 7 and stay for 3/4 months with my family as I live 11 hours on a plane away! I've been living abroad for 1.5 years.

Sad times thought it was easier for uk citizens!!!! Lived and worked there 28 years 🙄

I’m not sure this is 100% correct. If your DD has her children in the UK I think she can pass it on but not if they’re born abroad.

@movingonup20 sorry meant to tag you, my response was to your post!

Not 100% how it worked by my friend came back from Australia 2/3 years ago to have her baby. She'd been out of the country for at least 12 months before but may have tweaked the truth to get around this I'mnot sure! She did stay in the uk until recently so the kids nanny could spend some time with them but the birth and nhs care didn't cost her a penny

I’m British by descent (born out of UK). My children are British because I had them in the UK. If they had been born abroad, they wouldn’t have been automatically British - but I think because I had lived in the UK in between then I could have applied for them to be British. Something complicated like that! They’re dual nationals, but I think their children would have to be born in the other country to receive the citizenship as similarly it can only be passed on to one generation outside of the country.

@movingonup20 thanks for the info. Did you have to do back and live in the UK for some years in order to process the full passport ?

@northernlass101 Sorry you've been out of UK 1.5 years ? I think there are concessions if you've been out less than 5 years. I've been out 10 years now :(

@AnneElliott He's not British, and he's from a country where it's not easy or particularly useful to have that passport, so I really do want a full British just in case