MoshiMoshi

Having moved from the US to the UK at 6 months pregnant:

- If you're not living in the UK, you're not eligible to have a free NHS delivery (you can pay, or pay to go private). In London, at least, GPs and hospitals are pretty on-the-ball about checking that you're habitually resident in the UK. Think tenancy agreements, bills, work contracts.

- If you have an uncomplicated single pregnancy, most airlines let you fly up to 36 weeks (roughly 8 months). You need to provide a doctor's note after 28 weeks.

- Transferring from US healthcare to the NHS mid-pregnancy is like changing from one school system to the other in the middle of your exams. Different procedures, different vocabulary, different assumptions. Plus a lot of bureaucracy. It took a good few weeks and a lot of faffing around to install me in NHS antenatal care, which feels like a long time when your due date is getting closer.

In conclusion: pick a country, live there, give birth there! If you have good health insurance I wouldn't hesitate to stay in the States.

audi4t

Just an FYI and it's a long way off for the baby.

The US doesn't officially "recognize" dual citizenship - the UK does.

Trivia - Winston Churchill was given honorary US citizenship after WW2 - one of a select few to be given this distinction.

Sally Redux

Not sure what you mean by 'more efficient'.

Turning up to deliver in the UK would be unwise from a number of points of view, as mentioned above.

MsElui

so she may have to pay something (like she will no doubt with a co-pay or whatever here) - they wont 'not help her'.

also think about your attitude towards 'intervention'. If you are not into pain and want drugs up the wazoo and want/dont care if you end up with a c-section - then US is a very good fit. If you prefer more natural and less intrusion and intervention (and c-section only if reqd) - then the UK is a much better fit. I had my third child as a home birth here (prev 2 were born in the uk) and people here look at me like i'm insane when i tell them. I also had to forcefully opt out of unnecessary tests here that were just given to everyone. (ie in the uk they give a glucose test for maternal diabetes if ANY of your monthly tests give an indications. In the US the glucose is administered to all regardless.) or that the US hospital want to stick a cannula in your arm upon arrival - so its easier to administer drugs later. I strongly preferred to wait until i needed drugs (which i didnt end up needing at all).

sir_eccles

You should probably qualify that statement. The US just doesn't care if you are a dual citizen, when you are in the US you will only be treated as a US citizen.

http://travel.state.gov/content/trav...tionality.html

brit_usa2014

Thanks for all the advice everyone! And to the person who said this discussion is premature until it happens, I don't think it should matter to you, plus I think it is important as from what it look like (based on posts) a lot of planning is required (if I choose to have to the baby in the UK).

As an aside, I didn't realize I would not be allowed under NHS as I always assumed that would be the case- How easy would be it be to get registered again?

hungryhorace

There is no 'registered again' option. If you want a 'free' birth on the NHS you need to be a resident of the United Kingdom.

Noorah101

Depends how easy it would be for you to move back to the UK.

Rene

Sally Redux

Not my cup of tea either.

Jerseygirl

I didn't say they wouldn't help her. As Moshi-Moshi posted...there is a good chance she would have to pay.

bewildering

This is not true. It really, really depends on your hospital. Please shop around IF your insurance allows it.

My wife did not have a glucose test in either hospital maternity program she attended.

The midwifery program at UCSD actively encourages natural birth. They do not want you to have a C-section because it takes longer to recover. They also do not want to give you drugs. There was no cannula put in my wife's arm. But there is no pressure either way, there main focus is doing what you want and making you comfortable.

I have heard that the NHS makes you share recovery rooms, and also the staff are not as attentive as in the US. But this is all anecdotes from the women I know that have had a child in both countries.

Sally Redux

That's good to know. Every mother I have come across here seems to have had a lot of intervention.

sir_eccles

Just to add another anecdote. There are plenty of good hospital based midwife programs out there if you look for them. My wife gave birth at St Josephs here in Phoenix and the care was exemplary and minimal with regards to intervention in the birth.

S Folinsky

Trivia - Winnie was also a citizen at birth. Several Courts have ruled that it was a violation of equal protection that Jennie was not allowed to pass down citizenship but a man in her position would have been. His children were also US citizens by the same token.

Bob

Not in the same way. Though one can be registered as a Brit, if certain criteria is met. But it doesn't apply that many generations down the line like the Irish seem to allow.