Having a baby overseas

[GienItLaldy]

Hi everyone!

I am 9w pregnant and living in Australia. My family are all back in the UK other than my fiancé who is here with me. His side of the family are also in the UK.

I am having conflicting thoughts about our decision to have baby here in Australia. It’s our first baby and while it was definitely in our future plans, it wasn’t planned for this time. We are financially stable enough, both full time good jobs. My work are sponsoring me to go for Permanent Residency (which leads to Citizenship) here in Aus. The process takes about 2 years from now so we knew we’d likely be having or trying for a baby in that time.
Our medical is covered by our health care plan and so far it’s been great over here.

I am very close to my mum and dad. They’ve been supportive in our decision to stay. We’ve explained that it would be easy for us to return to the UK but we want to get the Aus passports for the long term opportunities it offers us and our baby.
I can’t shake the feeling of guilt that I am robbing my mum and dad of the experience of my pregnancy and grandchild.
I also fear that it will be too much to have a baby out here on our own without close family.
Our folks are fortunate enough that they can afford to come out to visit which is a huge blessing, but it’s not the same as being in the same country or close by.

Has anyone gone through this before and can offer some kind words of advice?

Am I being unreasonable to think we can do this here?

You can definitely do it out there! I think it’s probably natural to feel a pull to home during pregnancy. If your family are in the position to, I would definitely arrange them to visit around when baby is due though as the post birth hormones are something else and if you feel like this now, you’ll probably really want them around during that time.

Your parents don't need to experience your pregnancy!!!!!

You do what's right for you, your partner and your baby. Plenty of people have babies away from their families and manage fine, it depends what's important to you. You'll meet friends through pregnancy and if you have good medical support that's enough - but it's also ok to decide to go back (just make sure they'd actually help and you'd want that bad they wouldn't be overbearing before you do).