Have a baby in the UK or Ireland?

Vintagekits

Hopefully this is the right forum.

Here is the scenario. We are an Irish couple living in the UK for over 5 years now and we are planning to have a baby this year.

So should we have the in Ireland or the UK. What are the issues if any that we should consider - short, medium, long term.

We plan moving back to Ireland within the next 5 years.

cheers

metrovelvet

Have the baby wherever you are living.

Vintagekits

metrovelvet wrote: »

Have the baby wherever you are living.

why? what implications would that have either way?

stevoslice

Dual citizenship for one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_nationality_law#British_citizenship_by_birth_in_the_United_Kingdom

mrsmaths

Having lived both in Ireland and the UK (moved back to Ireland in the last few months) I would say UK everytime but it depends where in Ireland you would be planning on moving back to. Also if you were to move back, would you be going public or private. The system and the scans etc that you receive in Ireland (under public) differ greatly depending where in the country you live and which hospital you are going to. For example, I am 11 weeks pregnant and will be attending Holles Street Hospital in Dublin. I will have a first "booking in" appt at 18 weeks and one scan at 21 weeks and that's it. If you live in Castlebar, for example, you will usually have a scan at 12 weeks (always good, we are paying for a private one for the peace of mind) and another 3-4 throughout your pregnancy. While we lived in the UK, I had friends who were pregnant and they had very regular appts and regular scans with things like the Nuchal Scan (11-14 weeks, picks up things like risk of Downs etc.), amnioscentesis as standard.

The only other thing I would say is that it may not happen as quick as you think (I really hope it does for you x). I am healthy, under 35 and was monitoring ovulation etc every cycle and it still took 15 cycles for us to conceive. So what I guess I am saying is don't jump and change everything for the baby. If you are happy in the UK, stay for a while and start trying. if you aren't then come home and start trying. You're baby will get looked after whichever country you are in! Good luck with your decision

metrovelvet

Vintagekits wrote: »

why? what implications would that have either way?

1. Restrictions on travelling with a newborn by airline and might take a few weeks to get a passport

2. You dont know what can happen, c-section or god forbid the child is born with problems.

Vintagekits

metrovelvet wrote: »

1. Restrictions on travelling with a newborn by airline and might take a few weeks to get a passport

2. You dont know what can happen, c-section or god forbid the child is born with problems.

I would drive from A2B well before any due date. We have family on both sides so everyone will be looked after well.

What I am thinking about it entitlements to for example childrens allowance, entry to universities etc etc.

Its not necesarily just the health care prior during maternity, allthough that is an something we need to consider , but also the medium and long term issues.

metrovelvet

It depends on residency. But I wasnt talking about before the birth but afterwards.

DubDani

If one of you is Irish and the kid gets an Irish passport it doesn't make an ounce of difference where the baby is born in terms of the childs entitlements/rights in Ireland after the baby is born.

Considering that your pregnancy in the UK will be covered by the NHS I would recommend to give birth there. If you have to pay for the birth yourself in Ireland (as a newly purchased Irish Health Insurance would not cover the pregancy yet) it could easily cost you a few K with all the scans and consultant fees.

We had recently a Baby in the UK, and I as very impressed with the Level of Service we received.

deisemum

I had my first in London and my second in Waterford. There were pluses and negatives with both.

I only had 1 scan in UK and that was around the 18 - 20 weeks stage and that was the norm in my area. Also in London they wouldn't tell me the sex of my baby whereas I was told in Ireland.

Just of the top of my head some of the pluses for the UK were:

Community midwife who came to my home for my ante-natal checks once I started maternity leave and then when I had my son she came every day for 10 days and if I'd needed her she'd have come until my son was 28 days old then you're passed over to the Public Health Nurse. I developed pre-eclampsia and the care was excellent. Community midwife also came to my home for the booking in appointment around week 12.

However I was unfortunate to have 2 bitches on duty when I was in labour, (rest of the midwived were superb any time I was admitted during my pregnancy) they left me in an ante-natal ward overnight and ignored me despite me calling them a few times. I was only checked when it was time for the day staff to come on duty and at that stage I was delivering my son in the bed then it was a big panic with them pushing my bed down the corridor, into the lift to get me down to the delivery suites.

Free dental treatment throughout your pregnancy until baby is a year old if you're with a NHS dentist. Also get free chiropody.

Free GP appointments for yourself and baby where as in Ireland you pay once baby is 6 weeks olds unless you've got a medical or GP card.

I also found that once baby was a few weeks old and I was getting out and about more there was a hell of a lot of baby focused activities compared to very little here apart from mostly parent and toddler groups. The ones in Ireland that I've been to are way more competitive.

It was 1995 that I had my son in London and back then there were a lot more people breastfeeding so seen a lot more the norm compared to here. Also a lot of support available if you need it to get established, community midwives and PHNs were very good at coming to your home and sitting with you and helping, even making tea for you

The negatives were not having family around apart from 1 sister but also that had advantages too

I had my second son here in 1997 I had to pay my GP for the appointment confirming I was pregnant then free after that but then had to pay once my son was 6 weeks old.

The idea of having a birth plan or using TENS back then was laughed at where as in London both were actively encouraged. Don't know what it's like now though.

Only had two visits from the PHN and that's because I was breastfeeding and back then most mums that I know here only got 1 visit.

This is more a lifestyle thing but in the UK people generally phone before calling to visit where as here it's not the norm. You could be up during the night with your baby and just crawled back into bed when you'll have someone turn up to pass the hours, normally anytime from 9am and it's usually those who have children in playschool or school and have just dropped their children to school so have a few hours to fill. That was a shock to the system.

I'm sure I'll think of more but haven't time at the moment.

LegacyUser

Im from the uk had one baby in ireland and on baby no 2 GO BACK HOME very poor care in ireland

twomaddogs

I had my first in Ireland 18 months ago and I'm due my second in the UK in March

I much prefer the UK, for a lot of reasons the previous poster said:

Much more 1:1 care in the UK - I see midwives not consultants and I much prefer that

More choice - I can have a home birth here. The midwife is coming out to my house to do a birth plan (which she asked to do), in Dublin my birth plan was virtually laughed at

Free care, free dental care, free Gp care for the baby etc

Health in pregnancy grant of £190 at 30 weeks, baby gets a £250 cheque for a trust fund

Better after care, in Ireland the PHN was shocking, had no information on breastfeeding, misdiagnosed DD with a milk allergy (she had thrush), didn't pick up on PND, I could go on...

Definitely much better in terms of things to do with a baby in the UK - loads of playgroups (one for every day of the week in my area and it's small villages), parks, indoor soft play areas etc. I found mums over here friendlier too, we always have other mums and kids over to play whereas in Dublin it wasn't really done to invite people over who you meet at mum and baby groups

Nevyn

Yes we all hope and plan to have a good easy birth and for things to go swmingly.
But sometimes they don't and if the new mother needs to stay in hospital for a week afterwards or the new baby end up in NICU for a week afterwards and you are not in the country where your current home is, what happens then?
And how long after such a stay would it be safe for either to travel home?

Ickle Magoo

Vintagekits wrote: »

I would drive from A2B well before any due date. We have family on both sides so everyone will be looked after well.

What I am thinking about it entitlements to for example childrens allowance, entry to universities etc etc.

Its not necesarily just the health care prior during maternity, allthough that is an something we need to consider , but also the medium and long term issues.

Children's allowance is payable to eligible parents (with children under 18, obviously) who are resident in the UK, nationality doesn't come into it. Same with university fees, residents of the UK get subsidised or no fees (depending on area/age/course). The UK & Eire have a "special relationship" when it comes to students and many Irish students are elligible for grants and subsidies at the mo, tho that may well change by the time any babies born today are of uni age.

Vintagekits

its basically sounding like we should have the kid here and then move back before they start school

Ickle Magoo

One word of warning regarding schools - if you want any kind of choice of education then you need to be applying to schools early and you may need to provide baptism certs, it doesn't work the same way as the UK and the catchment areas.

Billiejo

Professional and personal view point.

Personal: Had my two children in the UK. No problems with ante & post natal care. Including Health Visitor support (if needed) until 5 years of age. Following that they had access to a school Nurse throught their primary and secondary school years. Had all medical care when needed; Spent all school holidays with Grandparents in Ireland; Has dual citizenship- Irish and UK passports.

Professional-UK
Nowdays, in addition to the above there is 'Surestart' for EVERY child in the Country = mother & baby/child group activity's & 'every child is entitled/expected to access Nursery provision & vitamins & fruit entitlements.
Educationally; In the main if a child has ability they will achieve academically and the outcome will not depend on parental status.
Mother & Child; Will have follow up care as required, including Postnatal Depression (PND) assessment as HV role to assess every mother routinely. Breast feeding support is encouraged and also HV role.

*UK Health Visitors (HV) Versus Public Health Nurses (PHN)
HV is qualified to work as PHN in Ireland. However PHN would have to return to University to qualify as a HV which is at a higher level and covers the whole spectrum of Family health care and Child development, similiar to that which the Clinic Medical Officer (CMO) provides in Ireland.
HV only concentrates on family and children. Professional development is mandatory with a registration responsibility for continious updating.

Professional- Ireland.
Equality of Child Health/care is non-existant. It is two tiered - private & public. The Child Health policy in Ireland is a left over from the old UK NHS as the HSE has never moved it forward in line with researched evidence.
Irish GP appear very mercenary as far as the health needs of mothers and children are concerned. (poor families/Sick children paying for GP & perscriptions!!!!. Breast feeding is encouraged but support is private.

The Public Health Nurse system: Covers Child health assessments & District nursing - concentrating on dealing with the elderly as a priority. Mothers are not assessed routinely for PND (not policy & PHN not trained to do.
Some private maternity hospitals do PND assessment before discharge albeit recommendation time is 4-6 weeks postnatal?
PHN professional development is provided by advertising reps, Infant formula and mainly wound care.
A part of their role is also in schools where once a year they carry out hearing and vision testing.

WalterMitty

From talking to friends in uk their service seems much better. One example is the mother being offered a waterbirth in the public system over in uk, never heard of that over here.

deisemum

When I had my son who's now 14 in the UK I was offered a water birth but when I was 26 weeks pregnant I developed pre-eclampsia so that put an end to the water birth. The maternity suite had a room allocated for water births.

I found that in the UK you're more involved in the planning and choosing options compared to here where I found it's the hospital's way and you'll do as they say.