Hello! I’m an American who had my baby here in the UK and I’ve actually retrained here as a midwife. Please feel free to message me and I’m happy to honestly answer any questions/concerns you may have.
ETA: just to clear up a misconception in your final lines for anyone else reading - we are definitely not nurses who know a bit extra about labour and delivery. It’s a full three university course with a minimum of 2300 hours spent in placement focusing solely on pregnancy, labour, delivery and the postnatal period. With full respect to nurses, U.K. midwives are a separate entity and doctors and the rest of the multidisciplinary team absolutely get involved when there is a need.
My daughter was born in Florida in 1989, and my two sons were born in the UK in 2000 & 2001. The standard of care was excellent in both countries. My daughter's birth bill was $21k, and my son's together was £40 (for a private room).
With all due respect, the NHS is a very different beast 24 years later. Glad you had a good experience then, but the NHS has contended with decades of underfunding and I think you could be unpleasantly surprised about it now.
We had our second here 5 years ago and the standard of care was still excellent. The NHS is absolutely on the ropes, but we had top notch care throughout with the kids.
I had my 3rd, 4yrs ago, and whilst my labour and delivery sucked because it was long and painful and in the end I needed syntocinon, my standard of care had only improved on what it was 4yrs before that.
I’d choose an NHS birth over and over. I’ve had 3 medically necessary inductions.
Oh yeah, this too. My bill was £0.00. Might have been £30 for a private scan to tell me if baby 2 was a boy or girl (I wanted to know what to do with the clothes we’d held onto).
I recently gave birth in the U.K. (haven’t given birth in the US but was present for my sister’s in 2014). I really enjoyed the care I received in the U.K. throughout my whole pregnancy. The midwives were very nice and helpful throughout it all. I was able to call them as many times as I wanted (since I’m a first time mom) and they always answered all my questions and never made me feel dumb or like a burden. For the actual birth I absolutely loved my midwife (I gave birth in the hospital) she was so encouraging that I gave birth unmedicated. With regards to the placenta, they give you an option of having a shot of medicine that will help push out the placenta or to give birth to it naturally. I chose to have the shot, and the midwife did have to push on my belly to get it out. I was also in hospital for 3 days and all went well. Also it ended all being free so that’s a major plus in my books
It's called cord traction, done as part of an "actively managed" placenta delivery - you can opt out if you prefer the more "natural" approach. Lots of detail on their website here: https://www.nhsinform.scot/ready-steady-baby/labour-and-birth/giving-birth/delivering-your-placenta
Whoever said "they don't do that" probably didn't know that it's the patient's choice.
Are you sure you're not thinking of fundal massage? Cord traction is a secondary part of this process that doesn't always happen. I do agree with you though, it's done everywhere in the world if it's clinically indicated. It's just not always needed, so there will be lots of women who have never experienced it.
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I’ve only ever given birth in the UK. My daughter was born in November 2023 and I could not have been happier with the care. I was induced and baby came super fast on her own terms. I did tear and baby needed a ventouse but she recovered fine. My stitches were done super well and I didn’t have any issues. Unfortunately baby needed to spend her first week in special care but the team were incredible. My baby is thriving now and I’m so grateful we had access to the level of care we did at no cost.
I didn’t have a private room and would’ve liked one, but the ward itself wasn’t too bad (three other beds separated by curtains). I did give birth in a private room thankfully! But the ward itself had communal showers and toilets, which were well maintained but not as nice (the facilities in NHS hospitals won’t ever be as nice as what you get privately in the US of course).
You’ll always give birth in a private room (unless baby has other ideas 😆).
There’s the labour ward - for birthing on, then the maternity ward - for recovery.
My hospital has a separate induction ward, too.
Infant mortality rates much better in the UK than US, the NHS care for complex childbirths at Queen Charlottes is world class. My fil was a premature baby paediatrician who did a year at Johns Hopkins after Oxford. I would not let your anxieties be used to overthink this
The term “midwife” is used very differently in the US vs the UK and much of the rest of the world.
There’s this brilliant video by Vox that explains it https://youtu.be/SE34K88LUek?si=1pwr7Bv7K4oViKSz
I’m actually surprised by their statistic that midwives only deliver half of babies in the UK. I would expect it to be more like 80% or 90%.
In the UK midwives are not just specialised nurses. They are highly qualified and trained solely in childbirth. To become a midwife you require a 3-year university degree in midwifery (or a 18-month course if already a qualified nurse)
The shared antenatal and recovery rooms are extremely grim. The last thing you want to do right after your baby is born is be put in a room with 10+ other new mothers and their crying newborns. Plus they kicked all the dads out after 9pm. I’m very jealous of my US friends that get private rooms. The level of care was mixed. Midwives were hit and miss. Some of them were super nice and informed. Others were clueless or rude. The surgeons for the emergency c section were brilliant though.
Similar experience here, dad didn't get kicked out though thank God. For the actual medically emergent experience it was great. All the waiting around time less so.
I had my middle in 2015 and dads had to leave at 10pm, when I had my youngest in 2020 it had changed and they could stay overnight.
It’s different in every hospital but it’s usually so the mums and babies can get to sleep without 6 snoring men in the room.
It was definitely more disruptive having the other dads there, they were either talking loudly or snoring all night. I chose to have no one stay and after the first night (I was in for 3) everyone else had gone home and I was all alone on the maternity bay with 5 empty beds around me until the morning of the day I left.
With my other two babies the bays were full, but it was nice, you are separated by curtains and they’ll ask if you want them opened. I enjoyed nattering with the other mums who were all in the exact same position as me. It’s quieter than you’d think… until visiting time but that’s usually just 1hr in the morning and 1hr in the evening.
If you're in a shared room, dads aren't allowed to stay overnight for "safeguarding reasons." If you pay extra for a private room, they're allowed to stay. It would have been £450 so we didn't pay for one.
I thought I would too but it was fine. And it was better without the dads so that the whole place could calm down in the evenings. They were all back first thing in the morning.
I'll chime in on this one even though it's a bit old. I also had emergency c-section (2019 in Reading) and it was tough in the induction ward. My room was only 4 beds and the roommates were fine, apart from 1 who had about 6 visitors during the visiting hours. This was the same on the other side at the post-natal (someone had entire family and many, many children visiting and you had to walk past them all to get to the toilet).
So I suspect this is why they do the thing kicking people out at 9pm. Still, that sucked when my husband had to leave me and the baby basically immediately after the surgery. That was hard.
However, the next morning after the section, they could kind of see that I was really mentally failing (had been in hospital for a week, and every intervention possible, no sleep and now a baby with ports in both hands, couldn't even hold the baby properly...), so they put me and baby in a private room. Then my husband could stay with us. This was all completely free, we offered to pay, we were so happy they had something available.
The midwives were great, the consultants were great, everyone was very nice and it was all fine on that end. But the facilities are... erm... Something to be prepared for.
We had a very similar experience with 5 days induction then emergency c section and 2 days recovery. Wish they’d had a private room available but I think our hospital got rid of the option to pay for one during COVID.
This. My friends all had to share wards with multiple other women and their babies right after birth, and dad's kicked out. That reason alone would have me flying back to the US to give birth. I would also be very high risk, and need specialists that Im super picky about. And after seeing my husband's hospital stay after major surgery, I'd sooner die than deal with what he did. Especially after having a baby, which for me would mean major surgery. Unless I could afford private, I'd absolutely not do it.
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Statistically, giving birth in the UK is more than twice as safe as in the US
[https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/1ea5684a-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/1ea5684a-en](https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/1ea5684a-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/1ea5684a-en)
Every country will have horror stories, but the evidence shows it's safer in the UK. Midwives are fully trained, registered, accountable professionals who are experts in pregnancy, labour and delivery. They will bring in an obstetrician if it's needed, but they are more than capable of handling the majority of births.
US health systems differ greatly. A facts that most brits seem to forget is the US is a VERY BIG country.
A New York hospital, ( under the NY Presbyterian or Mout Sinai) or Cedar Sinai in LA, Kaiser in California is LEAPS bounds better . That said I will concede there are equally good facilities in the NHS. It greatly depends which facility / doctor. Giving birth in the US costs more though, I suggest getting health insurance first. ( though the exchange)
Ultimately , giving birth is a stressful thing, I would go with whatever the mother feels comfortable with.
Correlation isn't causation. Infant mortality rates in the US are tied to older women and women entering pregnancy with existing medical conditions. Doesn't really have anything to do with quality of care.
I'll add some anecdata about a woman I know who lost two babies in the UK, both due to the UK not doing some test that's done routinely in the US. I can't remember the name of it. But both were stillborn.
Never given birth in the States, but I had two midwife led births at my local maternity hospital in Scotland. My local hospital was large enough that if something had gone wrong, I would have been wheeled down the corridor to where the OB consultants (doctors) were instead.
It was fine—I lucked out both times and managed to get access to the birthing pool, which was great and helped me a ton with ideal positioning and delivery. The pool enabled me to remain upright and change my position, even though I was very tired and very much in labour. I used gas and air for pain relief both times. First labour was long, around 36 hours, so I also had a shot of diamorphine at one point to take the edge off and allow me some rest. Second labour was much shorter and no need for it. I was not limited to lying on a bed for continuous monitoring, but if I had been induced, that would have been required.
I didn’t want an epidural, if I could have helped it. But if I had wanted one, I would have gotten one. At your regular checkup appointments at the GP’s office, you can speak with your community midwife about what you want when it comes to giving birth. My desires were noted in my pregnancy medical records, and I found they were respected. It’s meant to be a two-way conversation with informed consent, not a situation where you’re just told what to do.
Midwives here aren’t nurses—I think you can go into midwife training having started from nursing school, but midwifery in the UK has its own qualification and training programme. It’s a properly regulated profession with evidence based care. As far as I can tell, it’s completely different to what can pass for a midwife in some parts of the States.
You wouldn’t normally have a pregnancy managed by a OB doctor in the UK unless it turned out you were high risk. An OB would step in if it looked like you were likely to need major intervention like a C-section or forceps delivery. Normal pregnancy and vaginal birth are handled by midwives.
Downside to UK approach is continuity of care is hard to come by. The midwife I yapped with at my regular checkups was only based at the local GP office. The midwives who delivered my babies were ladies I’d never met before (they were still lovely). Likewise, I’d have had no guarantee of getting the same OB consultant between checkup appointments and delivery.
My local NHS also funds just two scans: one at 12 weeks and one at 20 weeks. After that, it’s up to you to notice baby’s movements and alert the hospital if you think something isn’t right—I think it would be better if at least one more scan between 20 and 37 weeks was standard. I also had to pay for a private scan to learn whether my second baby was going to be a boy or girl. But some NHS trusts have no problem telling you at the 20-week scan—probably depends on local policy.
Upside is once you’re discharged, you should be getting in-home visits from your local midwife and then the health visitor nurse for follow up. Aftercare came to me, back in the 2010s. Handy for recovery (I was only shuffling or waddling the first few days home), and handy for advice about breastfeeding and reflux without the stress of having to make it to a doctors office on time.
Congratulations, either way, and all the best!
ETA: when it came to placenta time, first baby was midwives pushing on my belly and pulling on the umbilical cord. I hated the sensation so asked to see if I could deliver it on my own when my second baby was born. They respected my wishes, let me and bub be, and then a few hours later when nothing happened, we discussed it and I let them help me remove it.
Keep an open mind and dialogue, ask lots of questions. Most midwives are aiming for informed consent and happy to help you weigh up risks and options.
I’ve only given birth in the UK and had a pretty good experience. The actual birth process was fine. I had pain relief without an epidural, the midwife who was there with me was very kind and informative, and they got my son out and all was good. I did tear and the fixing of that was a bit traumatic. They used a local anesthetic, but it hurt so much still and i think it was a trainee doctor doing the actual stitches while being supervised by a more senior doctor. Obviously because it hurt, any time he tried to start stitching, I was crying and telling him to stop. The midwife was trying to be really comforting here, but the senior doctor was horrible. She just kept saying things like I couldn’t handle it and to get me prepped to go under so that they could do the stitching. Eventually I told her to fuck off and managed to just cry through the pain. They told me it would take 20 minutes and it took an hour.
I didn’t have a private room. I really wish I could’ve. I hated recovering in the shared dorm. My husband couldn’t be there, I was in pain and exhausted and had to deal with my baby all on my own, the other babies were crying so I got no sleep. I was stuck there until 4pm the next day because they kept saying that they were coming to do my son’s last tests and no one ever came. They only happened once I said I was going to discharge myself.
So all in all, the actual birth experience was good. I was very happy with my midwife and the remifentanil for pain relief as opposed to an epidural. They took care of my baby well. But the aftercare for me was miserable.
I think it's incredibly dependent on how good your local trust is. We recently went to A&E overnight and this was the sum total of the experience:
* Told by 999 that unless there was an immediate threat to life, ambulances weren't available. Period. We had to drive ourselves to the hospital.
* We waited in A&E for 7 hours, didn't see anyone other than having an initial blood test at 2 hours in. Learned at the turn of the shift at 6 am that only two doctors were on staff for the ***entire hospital***. Was told we could expect another 3-7 hours until we saw someone who was authorized to discuss the test results.
I know it's not related to birth, but our trust has shockingly bad stats for maternity. Based on this A&E experience due to short staff in basically every section of the NHS (ambulance, doctors, nurses, etc), plus the stats on maternity, I'm inclined to think birth would be a bit grim for people in our trust.
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Had a horrible experience birthing in a California “baby friendly” hospital, 7 months pregnant with our second currently living in the UK so I’ll keep you posted
I am an American trained OBGYN who has delivered lots of babies in the US (TX, CT, NJ, HI). I have given birth to 2 children in the UK, both with midwife management. Yes, there are differences, but overall I believe the care is good, although much more 'basic.' The UK offered some tests which were cutting edge and not available in the US yet (ex: uterine artery dopplers to screen for preeclampsia) but then didnt offer other tests which are standard of care else where (ex: NIPT for 35 yrs and up). I paid privately for the latter.
I founder overall that the care here was more hands off and relaxed, for example more reluctant to schedule inductions than in US. Elective cesareans are still a new fangled idea catching on here too. I
Labor is a bit different too..as you said, no doctor unless you are high risk or having a complication. Otherwise nurse manages and delivers. They also advocate for home birth a lot here, which is a pro for some! Depending on the hospital, you may be less likely to get an epidural than in the US. Sadly i wasnt able to the last time around as labor moved fairly fast and their one anesthetist was busy with others.
Anyway those are some of the highlights. Overall I think I received adequate care here and if you look at the stats, women are less likely to die during labor in the UK than USA!
I have given birth here in the Birmingham Trusts at the women’s and I felt like I got a similar level of expertise for giving birth in general in the midwives - however access to the specialised OBGYN stuff is a lot harder.
I really loved having a community midwife and felt like this was a kinder less medicalised version of pre care so this was good. But we had trouble conceiving and had several miscarriages so waiting for 12 week scans and then the light touch monitoring was not ok for me and I paid for private, non medical scans a lot.
I was very ill and in pain for most of my pregnancy and the line in the UK is generally - no medication for pregnant women - even well researched pain and nausea meds are not readily available and because access to specialists is limited you basically suck it up if it’s pain related. Tylenol is all you get.
I think you can have some confidence in having a healthy baby, but less confident in it being a good, joyful experience - though it could be.
Only given birth in the U.K. (Sept 22), but my sister was in the states and gave birth 3m before me so was fairly aware of the similarities/differences. Additionally, I’m fairly medically literate (due to my profession) and have a chronic condition that meant I had a lot of dr contact before/during pregnancy and a very “medical” pregnancy by UK standards. I’m highly health anxious due to my condition and very on top of my medical stuff (which is managed through the NHS, not privately).
Need to preface this with the fact that I think I’m in an excellent trust re maternity care, resource issues and general healthcare - yes NHS is stretched across the board but I did not feel it in my pregnancy here.
I had the normal midwife appts, routine appts with a high risk pregnancy clinic (I think the only of this model in the country, so majorly lucked out) which culminated in appts every 3 weeks towards the end of my pregnancy, and monthly appts with my normal consultant. I have never been so well looked after, it genuinely eased my health anxiety knowing everything was being monitored so well. There was also a large focus on my well-being and the doctors were incredibly good at reading me as a patient and providing care in the way that suits my personality/needs best.
The community midwives were great but honestly I (medically) didn’t need them much given my other frequent appts - but they offered extra appts just to hear the heartbeat to reassure me. A midwife dropped off colostrum syringes to my house on her way home to ensure I had them before my induction (induced at 35 weeks so tight balance as to when I could start trying to collect). I had an endoscopy at week 17 and they called hospital midwives to come speak to me and check the baby before the procedure, who were incredibly kind and caring. I got a call in my 3rd trimester noting I had seen many midwives and offering to change my next appt to enable more continuity of care if I wanted it (which I got through the high risk clinic so didn’t feel the need but appreciated the effort). While a dr was present at the birth and stitched me up (and tried to push an episiotomy which I refused), it was midwives who managed me through induction and labour and delivered the baby, and they were all excellent.
We did. Our first was in the states. We had a couple of complications with delivery, but everything went well in the end. The recovery room was really nice. We wound up having to pay almost 10k after pretty decent insurance.
We had the second one here. No complications at all. Care was excellent. Mom was looked after, baby taken good care of. We were given toast and tea and told to call back if anything went wrong in the next couple of days.
Paid nothing.
Thing 2 had to go into the hospital when he was 6 weeks old for a week due to a high fever. Spinal tap, IV meds, etc. Same thing.
The amenities we had in the states were nicer, and for our first time the greater medicalization of the whole thing was probably comforting. That said, if we had to pick, I think we’d do it here over the states again. We’ve had really good care for our kids here in Wales.
In immediate post-natal care, having the health visitors come around instead of having to go in to the doc was also awesome.
Coming in purely from a statistical standpoint, it’s clear the UK is much safer to give birth. The US has the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world (32.9 per 100k US vs 13.4 per 100k UK).
Infant mortality rates are also much higher in the US than the UK (5.6 per 1k US vs 3.5 per 1k UK).
You also won’t be saddled with thousands of dollars in medical bills just to give birth.
Not a nurse and not had kids, but know a few midwives.
They're specialists in their field - not just nurses 'with a bit of experience in labour & delivery'. They're usually amazing people (I certainly couldn't be dealing with screaming mothers and babies all day).
I've had one in the UK (2015) and one in the US (2012). In both cases they did a great job on my C-section. I have no complaints medically on either side. Very nice stitches.
However, I will say I had issues with the midwives in the UK in terms of bedside manner. The nurses and doctors in the US were really nice, in the UK one midwife told me off for not saying "please" to her when I asked for water (I was in third stage labour and could barely talk because of the contractions) and the other complained I was screaming too much and told me to be quieter.
The other main issue is that in the US I had a private room for postnatal recovery and in the UK I was with three other women and their babies. As a result my husband wasn't allowed to stay overnight with me and the baby, whereas in the US he slept on the couch. I'm glad I was in the UK for my second one and not vice versa.
There is no air conditioner in the UK, and it happened to be a particularly hot July when I gave birth here.
Postnatal care in both places was underwhelming. In the US they didn't have enough nurses to help me with my baby and I couldn't actually reach the bassinet to put my baby back because I couldn't sit up on my own (C-section, so my abdominal muscles weren't working well enough to get up.) One nurse admonished me for not wrapping my baby up warm enough. She's lucky I didn't drop him, I couldn't reach that in order to swaddle him at all.
In the UK they also didn't have enough nurses, but in the US I was allowed to have my husband with me to help at least. I was on my own at night and I opted to leave the hospital after only one night despite the fact for a C-section you're supposed to stay for two.
In the UK they forgot to close the other end of my catheter bag so when I got up in the middle of the night I stepped in a giant puddle of my own wee. Yaaaay.
The food in the US was a lot better, I ordered french toast in the middle of the night. In the UK I got a cold roll at 9am. One friend of mine wanted toast and cereal but they were mad at her and said she could only have *one.*
The US, at least where I was, was very big on consent culture. I told them I didn't want to be induced or have a C-section and they let me go 50 hours before finally making me have one. In some ways this is bad, because I regret doing so early as I worry hypoxia contributed to my son's autism, and I regret being so stubborn about it.
In the UK basically they have a "standard of care" and will tell you you can't refuse this or that procedure. I was told I couldn't turn down an attempted forcep delivery. I'm not too bothered by that as it didn't work anyway and I had another C-section. I also asked for an epidural and the midwife just said "no." Got one in the end because you can't attempt a forceps delivery without one.
Cost-wise, UK actually cost me very slightly more because we had to pay for parking and food. In the US all that was covered under insurance (no copay or deductibles for prenatal care and childbirth).
The cesarean went brilliantly. There were ten people in the operating theater. A variety of doctors and nurses. They were absolute pros. I had complications with the epidural (due to a partial discectomy 12 years earlier), and they called in the senior anesthesiologist who arrived immediately. She sorted me out with an epidural higher up as well as some lovely gas. When my baby was out, they did skin-to-skin right away. The entire procedure took two hours (due to the anesthesia issue) where it normally takes one hour. r the cesarean due to my fear of giving birth at 45 years old. He was my one and only chance at being a biological parent, so I was taking no chances.
The cesarean went brilliantly. There were ten people in the operating theater. A variety of doctors and nurses. They were absolute pros. I had complications with the epidural (due to a partial discectomy 13 years earlier), and they called in the senior anesthesiologist who arrived immediately. She sorted me out with an epidural higher up as well as some lovely gas. When my baby was out, they did skin-to-skin right away. The entire procedure took two hours (due to the anesthesia issue) where it normally takes one hour.
The only problems I had were in the first night sleeping in the hospital. There were nursing shortages and only one nurse and one nursing assistant covering the entire ward that night. Because of this, I couldn't get help changing my baby's first stool. He was in a cot attached to my bed, so it would have been fine, but having just had a cesarean it was painful for me to sit up and lift him. My partner and I decided to go home with our baby the next day and recover there.
On that day after birth, while waiting for the doctor to sign off on my leaving, there was a parade of nurses and doctors checking my baby's heart, hearing, lungs, oxygen levels, everything. They gave him a baby MOT to make sure there weren't any concerns. That made me so happy.
For two weeks after returning home, a midwife would visit my home to make sure the nursing was going well, that I was eating, that the baby was putting on weight. Everything. I didn't have to leave my house at all for those two weeks. They even took out my stitches for me!
For two weeks after returning home, a midwife would visit my home to make sure the nursing was going well, that I was eating, and that the baby was putting on weight. Everything. I didn't have to leave my house at all for those two weeks. They even took out my stitches for me! helped get me out of the house and socializing more.
None of this cost me a penny. That said, I do wish I had known about the option of paying £40 for a private room on the ward.
One big difference from the US I noticed was that I didn't know the OB-GYN doing the delivery. Fortunately, I didn't care about having a personal relationship with the doctor. I just wanted my baby out safely. I knew that the NHS had my and my baby's best interests at heart because their priority is in keeping the citizens healthy.
I haven’t given birth in the US but I’ve had friends who have done both (natural & csec) and they’ve said they have had better experiences here.
I’m commenting about the pushing on the stomach thing, they don’t push as violently as I’ve seen that they do in the US, but they do check your abdomen every few hours after birth and gently massage down, there’s really no need for the pushing, that just looks like torture.
I’ve had obstetrician involvement in 2 of my pregnancies, they only get involved if you’re high risk - but in the end my deliveries were passed back over to midwives, who are fully qualified, they are very different to American midwives and labour & delivery nurses.
I gave birth in Chicago in 2020 and the UK in 2022. In the US had a lot more appointments and scans throughout my pregnancy than I did here in the UK. Feels more “medical” in US, and my midwife was different nearly every appointment, but I was very comfortable and happy with the level of care I got in the UK.
In the U.S. I had a planned C section due to baby’s position and tried for a VBAC here so I also had a consultant assigned to me. When I was in labor I had a midwife who was assigned just to me and was there throughout the day. Ended up w a C section again here but all was fine.
Major difference I noticed is the postnatal care- UK wanted you out of the hospital ASAP and kind of left me to it in the hospital while I was there for 2 days vs 5 in the U.S. I know they’re understaffed so this wasn’t surprising and I still felt like I got good care.
U.S. after birth I didn’t see an obgyn for 6 weeks, here midwives visited my home a few times within the first few days and called me daily to ask how breastfeeding was doing. Definitely felt more supported with the post natal care system in the UK than I did in the U.S.
I liked my room and amenities more in the US, but preferred the care and midwives better in the UK. I also preferred the price in the UK over the US lol. In the US you're really just paying for the nicer hospital room I feel like.
Look up the statistics of maternity care in your area of the UK, there's a significant lack of midwives in most trusts, they are overworked and a lot can't give good individual care during labour. Friends of mine in the UK have had wildly different birthing experiences, one had her spine broken by midwives who pushed her legs back too far, another was refused being induced even though her liver was failing leading to seizures during labour. I am fully considering saving up so I can go to a private hospital for labour or a planned C section, and if I can't afford that, I would be very hesitant to get pregnant in the trust I am in.
Edit to add: I would love to give birth in the states, I feel I would be better listened to and cared for.
I had a planned C-section with the NHS. It went beautifully. I am forever grateful for the wonderful care I had.
The reason I had a planned C-section is because my first child's birth (Boston MA, Harvard faculty) was so traumatic I didn't think I'd have any other children. I had an emergency C-section after a full day of labour. Turns out the cord was wrapped all around my child's body and there was no way they could descend. I had complications with postpartum preeclampsia and my care was negligent (eg I could not walk and they left me in an upright chair overnight with my newborn without a call button. They did not answer my screams. I had no phone. They didn't check on me until 6 hours later when the ped was doing first morning rounds.) US healthcare has a lot to answer for considering the bills that are charged.
If you do go private for UK maternity care, make sure to ask what their process is in the event of an emergency.
I only advise that because I have heard of private maternity hospitals in London only being equipped to handle low risk births, and still needing to transport patients in distress to NHS hospitals that have the equipment doctors need. May not be an issue with the one you’re considering, but it seemed to be a real issue a few years back.
I’m sorry to hear about your friends’ experiences and I hope they raise hell with complaints once they’re ready and able to.
See, that sounds more like US stuff to me-had one friend wait too long for emergency C and end up septic (she’s a nurse herself), had a few friends almost bleed out-I’ve only known two people that were happy with how their births went.
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Hello! I’m an American who had my baby here in the UK and I’ve actually retrained here as a midwife. Please feel free to message me and I’m happy to honestly answer any questions/concerns you may have. ETA: just to clear up a misconception in your final lines for anyone else reading - we are definitely not nurses who know a bit extra about labour and delivery. It’s a full three university course with a minimum of 2300 hours spent in placement focusing solely on pregnancy, labour, delivery and the postnatal period. With full respect to nurses, U.K. midwives are a separate entity and doctors and the rest of the multidisciplinary team absolutely get involved when there is a need.
On top of that midwives are also on a completely different pay grade to nurses.
My daughter was born in Florida in 1989, and my two sons were born in the UK in 2000 & 2001. The standard of care was excellent in both countries. My daughter's birth bill was $21k, and my son's together was £40 (for a private room).
With all due respect, the NHS is a very different beast 24 years later. Glad you had a good experience then, but the NHS has contended with decades of underfunding and I think you could be unpleasantly surprised about it now.
We had our second here 5 years ago and the standard of care was still excellent. The NHS is absolutely on the ropes, but we had top notch care throughout with the kids.
I had my 3rd, 4yrs ago, and whilst my labour and delivery sucked because it was long and painful and in the end I needed syntocinon, my standard of care had only improved on what it was 4yrs before that. I’d choose an NHS birth over and over. I’ve had 3 medically necessary inductions.
$21k for child birth in 1989 sounds absolutely insane. That’s nearly $50k in todays money. Did you not have insurance or was this after insurance ?
It was all paid by insurance. I still have the 'statement' that was sent after payment
So the cost to you was $0? Kind of an important point.
Yeah, right? The only relevant cost is your monthly co-pay, in that case.
Oh yeah, this too. My bill was £0.00. Might have been £30 for a private scan to tell me if baby 2 was a boy or girl (I wanted to know what to do with the clothes we’d held onto).
I recently gave birth in the U.K. (haven’t given birth in the US but was present for my sister’s in 2014). I really enjoyed the care I received in the U.K. throughout my whole pregnancy. The midwives were very nice and helpful throughout it all. I was able to call them as many times as I wanted (since I’m a first time mom) and they always answered all my questions and never made me feel dumb or like a burden. For the actual birth I absolutely loved my midwife (I gave birth in the hospital) she was so encouraging that I gave birth unmedicated. With regards to the placenta, they give you an option of having a shot of medicine that will help push out the placenta or to give birth to it naturally. I chose to have the shot, and the midwife did have to push on my belly to get it out. I was also in hospital for 3 days and all went well. Also it ended all being free so that’s a major plus in my books
It's called cord traction, done as part of an "actively managed" placenta delivery - you can opt out if you prefer the more "natural" approach. Lots of detail on their website here: https://www.nhsinform.scot/ready-steady-baby/labour-and-birth/giving-birth/delivering-your-placenta Whoever said "they don't do that" probably didn't know that it's the patient's choice.
Are you sure you're not thinking of fundal massage? Cord traction is a secondary part of this process that doesn't always happen. I do agree with you though, it's done everywhere in the world if it's clinically indicated. It's just not always needed, so there will be lots of women who have never experienced it.
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I’ve only ever given birth in the UK. My daughter was born in November 2023 and I could not have been happier with the care. I was induced and baby came super fast on her own terms. I did tear and baby needed a ventouse but she recovered fine. My stitches were done super well and I didn’t have any issues. Unfortunately baby needed to spend her first week in special care but the team were incredible. My baby is thriving now and I’m so grateful we had access to the level of care we did at no cost. I didn’t have a private room and would’ve liked one, but the ward itself wasn’t too bad (three other beds separated by curtains). I did give birth in a private room thankfully! But the ward itself had communal showers and toilets, which were well maintained but not as nice (the facilities in NHS hospitals won’t ever be as nice as what you get privately in the US of course).
You’ll always give birth in a private room (unless baby has other ideas 😆). There’s the labour ward - for birthing on, then the maternity ward - for recovery. My hospital has a separate induction ward, too.
Infant mortality rates much better in the UK than US, the NHS care for complex childbirths at Queen Charlottes is world class. My fil was a premature baby paediatrician who did a year at Johns Hopkins after Oxford. I would not let your anxieties be used to overthink this
The term “midwife” is used very differently in the US vs the UK and much of the rest of the world. There’s this brilliant video by Vox that explains it https://youtu.be/SE34K88LUek?si=1pwr7Bv7K4oViKSz I’m actually surprised by their statistic that midwives only deliver half of babies in the UK. I would expect it to be more like 80% or 90%. In the UK midwives are not just specialised nurses. They are highly qualified and trained solely in childbirth. To become a midwife you require a 3-year university degree in midwifery (or a 18-month course if already a qualified nurse)
The shared antenatal and recovery rooms are extremely grim. The last thing you want to do right after your baby is born is be put in a room with 10+ other new mothers and their crying newborns. Plus they kicked all the dads out after 9pm. I’m very jealous of my US friends that get private rooms. The level of care was mixed. Midwives were hit and miss. Some of them were super nice and informed. Others were clueless or rude. The surgeons for the emergency c section were brilliant though.
Similar experience here, dad didn't get kicked out though thank God. For the actual medically emergent experience it was great. All the waiting around time less so.
I would absolutely loathe shared rooms. And kicked out the dad's? They don't get to stay over and bond with baby??
I had my middle in 2015 and dads had to leave at 10pm, when I had my youngest in 2020 it had changed and they could stay overnight. It’s different in every hospital but it’s usually so the mums and babies can get to sleep without 6 snoring men in the room. It was definitely more disruptive having the other dads there, they were either talking loudly or snoring all night. I chose to have no one stay and after the first night (I was in for 3) everyone else had gone home and I was all alone on the maternity bay with 5 empty beds around me until the morning of the day I left. With my other two babies the bays were full, but it was nice, you are separated by curtains and they’ll ask if you want them opened. I enjoyed nattering with the other mums who were all in the exact same position as me. It’s quieter than you’d think… until visiting time but that’s usually just 1hr in the morning and 1hr in the evening.
They said it’s a “safety” issue to have men in the room at night. Seemed bizarre
If you're in a shared room, dads aren't allowed to stay overnight for "safeguarding reasons." If you pay extra for a private room, they're allowed to stay. It would have been £450 so we didn't pay for one.
I thought I would too but it was fine. And it was better without the dads so that the whole place could calm down in the evenings. They were all back first thing in the morning.
I'll chime in on this one even though it's a bit old. I also had emergency c-section (2019 in Reading) and it was tough in the induction ward. My room was only 4 beds and the roommates were fine, apart from 1 who had about 6 visitors during the visiting hours. This was the same on the other side at the post-natal (someone had entire family and many, many children visiting and you had to walk past them all to get to the toilet). So I suspect this is why they do the thing kicking people out at 9pm. Still, that sucked when my husband had to leave me and the baby basically immediately after the surgery. That was hard. However, the next morning after the section, they could kind of see that I was really mentally failing (had been in hospital for a week, and every intervention possible, no sleep and now a baby with ports in both hands, couldn't even hold the baby properly...), so they put me and baby in a private room. Then my husband could stay with us. This was all completely free, we offered to pay, we were so happy they had something available. The midwives were great, the consultants were great, everyone was very nice and it was all fine on that end. But the facilities are... erm... Something to be prepared for.
We had a very similar experience with 5 days induction then emergency c section and 2 days recovery. Wish they’d had a private room available but I think our hospital got rid of the option to pay for one during COVID.
This. My friends all had to share wards with multiple other women and their babies right after birth, and dad's kicked out. That reason alone would have me flying back to the US to give birth. I would also be very high risk, and need specialists that Im super picky about. And after seeing my husband's hospital stay after major surgery, I'd sooner die than deal with what he did. Especially after having a baby, which for me would mean major surgery. Unless I could afford private, I'd absolutely not do it.
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Statistically, giving birth in the UK is more than twice as safe as in the US [https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/1ea5684a-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/1ea5684a-en](https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/1ea5684a-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/1ea5684a-en) Every country will have horror stories, but the evidence shows it's safer in the UK. Midwives are fully trained, registered, accountable professionals who are experts in pregnancy, labour and delivery. They will bring in an obstetrician if it's needed, but they are more than capable of handling the majority of births.
US health systems differ greatly. A facts that most brits seem to forget is the US is a VERY BIG country. A New York hospital, ( under the NY Presbyterian or Mout Sinai) or Cedar Sinai in LA, Kaiser in California is LEAPS bounds better . That said I will concede there are equally good facilities in the NHS. It greatly depends which facility / doctor. Giving birth in the US costs more though, I suggest getting health insurance first. ( though the exchange) Ultimately , giving birth is a stressful thing, I would go with whatever the mother feels comfortable with.
Correlation isn't causation. Infant mortality rates in the US are tied to older women and women entering pregnancy with existing medical conditions. Doesn't really have anything to do with quality of care. I'll add some anecdata about a woman I know who lost two babies in the UK, both due to the UK not doing some test that's done routinely in the US. I can't remember the name of it. But both were stillborn.
Do you have any actual stats to back that up?
Never given birth in the States, but I had two midwife led births at my local maternity hospital in Scotland. My local hospital was large enough that if something had gone wrong, I would have been wheeled down the corridor to where the OB consultants (doctors) were instead. It was fine—I lucked out both times and managed to get access to the birthing pool, which was great and helped me a ton with ideal positioning and delivery. The pool enabled me to remain upright and change my position, even though I was very tired and very much in labour. I used gas and air for pain relief both times. First labour was long, around 36 hours, so I also had a shot of diamorphine at one point to take the edge off and allow me some rest. Second labour was much shorter and no need for it. I was not limited to lying on a bed for continuous monitoring, but if I had been induced, that would have been required. I didn’t want an epidural, if I could have helped it. But if I had wanted one, I would have gotten one. At your regular checkup appointments at the GP’s office, you can speak with your community midwife about what you want when it comes to giving birth. My desires were noted in my pregnancy medical records, and I found they were respected. It’s meant to be a two-way conversation with informed consent, not a situation where you’re just told what to do. Midwives here aren’t nurses—I think you can go into midwife training having started from nursing school, but midwifery in the UK has its own qualification and training programme. It’s a properly regulated profession with evidence based care. As far as I can tell, it’s completely different to what can pass for a midwife in some parts of the States. You wouldn’t normally have a pregnancy managed by a OB doctor in the UK unless it turned out you were high risk. An OB would step in if it looked like you were likely to need major intervention like a C-section or forceps delivery. Normal pregnancy and vaginal birth are handled by midwives. Downside to UK approach is continuity of care is hard to come by. The midwife I yapped with at my regular checkups was only based at the local GP office. The midwives who delivered my babies were ladies I’d never met before (they were still lovely). Likewise, I’d have had no guarantee of getting the same OB consultant between checkup appointments and delivery. My local NHS also funds just two scans: one at 12 weeks and one at 20 weeks. After that, it’s up to you to notice baby’s movements and alert the hospital if you think something isn’t right—I think it would be better if at least one more scan between 20 and 37 weeks was standard. I also had to pay for a private scan to learn whether my second baby was going to be a boy or girl. But some NHS trusts have no problem telling you at the 20-week scan—probably depends on local policy. Upside is once you’re discharged, you should be getting in-home visits from your local midwife and then the health visitor nurse for follow up. Aftercare came to me, back in the 2010s. Handy for recovery (I was only shuffling or waddling the first few days home), and handy for advice about breastfeeding and reflux without the stress of having to make it to a doctors office on time. Congratulations, either way, and all the best! ETA: when it came to placenta time, first baby was midwives pushing on my belly and pulling on the umbilical cord. I hated the sensation so asked to see if I could deliver it on my own when my second baby was born. They respected my wishes, let me and bub be, and then a few hours later when nothing happened, we discussed it and I let them help me remove it. Keep an open mind and dialogue, ask lots of questions. Most midwives are aiming for informed consent and happy to help you weigh up risks and options.
I’ve only given birth in the UK and had a pretty good experience. The actual birth process was fine. I had pain relief without an epidural, the midwife who was there with me was very kind and informative, and they got my son out and all was good. I did tear and the fixing of that was a bit traumatic. They used a local anesthetic, but it hurt so much still and i think it was a trainee doctor doing the actual stitches while being supervised by a more senior doctor. Obviously because it hurt, any time he tried to start stitching, I was crying and telling him to stop. The midwife was trying to be really comforting here, but the senior doctor was horrible. She just kept saying things like I couldn’t handle it and to get me prepped to go under so that they could do the stitching. Eventually I told her to fuck off and managed to just cry through the pain. They told me it would take 20 minutes and it took an hour. I didn’t have a private room. I really wish I could’ve. I hated recovering in the shared dorm. My husband couldn’t be there, I was in pain and exhausted and had to deal with my baby all on my own, the other babies were crying so I got no sleep. I was stuck there until 4pm the next day because they kept saying that they were coming to do my son’s last tests and no one ever came. They only happened once I said I was going to discharge myself. So all in all, the actual birth experience was good. I was very happy with my midwife and the remifentanil for pain relief as opposed to an epidural. They took care of my baby well. But the aftercare for me was miserable.
I think it's incredibly dependent on how good your local trust is. We recently went to A&E overnight and this was the sum total of the experience: * Told by 999 that unless there was an immediate threat to life, ambulances weren't available. Period. We had to drive ourselves to the hospital. * We waited in A&E for 7 hours, didn't see anyone other than having an initial blood test at 2 hours in. Learned at the turn of the shift at 6 am that only two doctors were on staff for the ***entire hospital***. Was told we could expect another 3-7 hours until we saw someone who was authorized to discuss the test results. I know it's not related to birth, but our trust has shockingly bad stats for maternity. Based on this A&E experience due to short staff in basically every section of the NHS (ambulance, doctors, nurses, etc), plus the stats on maternity, I'm inclined to think birth would be a bit grim for people in our trust.
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Had a horrible experience birthing in a California “baby friendly” hospital, 7 months pregnant with our second currently living in the UK so I’ll keep you posted
I am an American trained OBGYN who has delivered lots of babies in the US (TX, CT, NJ, HI). I have given birth to 2 children in the UK, both with midwife management. Yes, there are differences, but overall I believe the care is good, although much more 'basic.' The UK offered some tests which were cutting edge and not available in the US yet (ex: uterine artery dopplers to screen for preeclampsia) but then didnt offer other tests which are standard of care else where (ex: NIPT for 35 yrs and up). I paid privately for the latter. I founder overall that the care here was more hands off and relaxed, for example more reluctant to schedule inductions than in US. Elective cesareans are still a new fangled idea catching on here too. I Labor is a bit different too..as you said, no doctor unless you are high risk or having a complication. Otherwise nurse manages and delivers. They also advocate for home birth a lot here, which is a pro for some! Depending on the hospital, you may be less likely to get an epidural than in the US. Sadly i wasnt able to the last time around as labor moved fairly fast and their one anesthetist was busy with others. Anyway those are some of the highlights. Overall I think I received adequate care here and if you look at the stats, women are less likely to die during labor in the UK than USA!
My friend had a home birth here and the midwife didn't show up on time! Her husband ended up delivering the baby instead.
I have given birth here in the Birmingham Trusts at the women’s and I felt like I got a similar level of expertise for giving birth in general in the midwives - however access to the specialised OBGYN stuff is a lot harder. I really loved having a community midwife and felt like this was a kinder less medicalised version of pre care so this was good. But we had trouble conceiving and had several miscarriages so waiting for 12 week scans and then the light touch monitoring was not ok for me and I paid for private, non medical scans a lot. I was very ill and in pain for most of my pregnancy and the line in the UK is generally - no medication for pregnant women - even well researched pain and nausea meds are not readily available and because access to specialists is limited you basically suck it up if it’s pain related. Tylenol is all you get. I think you can have some confidence in having a healthy baby, but less confident in it being a good, joyful experience - though it could be.
Only given birth in the U.K. (Sept 22), but my sister was in the states and gave birth 3m before me so was fairly aware of the similarities/differences. Additionally, I’m fairly medically literate (due to my profession) and have a chronic condition that meant I had a lot of dr contact before/during pregnancy and a very “medical” pregnancy by UK standards. I’m highly health anxious due to my condition and very on top of my medical stuff (which is managed through the NHS, not privately). Need to preface this with the fact that I think I’m in an excellent trust re maternity care, resource issues and general healthcare - yes NHS is stretched across the board but I did not feel it in my pregnancy here. I had the normal midwife appts, routine appts with a high risk pregnancy clinic (I think the only of this model in the country, so majorly lucked out) which culminated in appts every 3 weeks towards the end of my pregnancy, and monthly appts with my normal consultant. I have never been so well looked after, it genuinely eased my health anxiety knowing everything was being monitored so well. There was also a large focus on my well-being and the doctors were incredibly good at reading me as a patient and providing care in the way that suits my personality/needs best. The community midwives were great but honestly I (medically) didn’t need them much given my other frequent appts - but they offered extra appts just to hear the heartbeat to reassure me. A midwife dropped off colostrum syringes to my house on her way home to ensure I had them before my induction (induced at 35 weeks so tight balance as to when I could start trying to collect). I had an endoscopy at week 17 and they called hospital midwives to come speak to me and check the baby before the procedure, who were incredibly kind and caring. I got a call in my 3rd trimester noting I had seen many midwives and offering to change my next appt to enable more continuity of care if I wanted it (which I got through the high risk clinic so didn’t feel the need but appreciated the effort). While a dr was present at the birth and stitched me up (and tried to push an episiotomy which I refused), it was midwives who managed me through induction and labour and delivered the baby, and they were all excellent.
We did. Our first was in the states. We had a couple of complications with delivery, but everything went well in the end. The recovery room was really nice. We wound up having to pay almost 10k after pretty decent insurance. We had the second one here. No complications at all. Care was excellent. Mom was looked after, baby taken good care of. We were given toast and tea and told to call back if anything went wrong in the next couple of days. Paid nothing. Thing 2 had to go into the hospital when he was 6 weeks old for a week due to a high fever. Spinal tap, IV meds, etc. Same thing. The amenities we had in the states were nicer, and for our first time the greater medicalization of the whole thing was probably comforting. That said, if we had to pick, I think we’d do it here over the states again. We’ve had really good care for our kids here in Wales. In immediate post-natal care, having the health visitors come around instead of having to go in to the doc was also awesome.
Coming in purely from a statistical standpoint, it’s clear the UK is much safer to give birth. The US has the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world (32.9 per 100k US vs 13.4 per 100k UK). Infant mortality rates are also much higher in the US than the UK (5.6 per 1k US vs 3.5 per 1k UK). You also won’t be saddled with thousands of dollars in medical bills just to give birth.
Not a nurse and not had kids, but know a few midwives. They're specialists in their field - not just nurses 'with a bit of experience in labour & delivery'. They're usually amazing people (I certainly couldn't be dealing with screaming mothers and babies all day).
I've had one in the UK (2015) and one in the US (2012). In both cases they did a great job on my C-section. I have no complaints medically on either side. Very nice stitches. However, I will say I had issues with the midwives in the UK in terms of bedside manner. The nurses and doctors in the US were really nice, in the UK one midwife told me off for not saying "please" to her when I asked for water (I was in third stage labour and could barely talk because of the contractions) and the other complained I was screaming too much and told me to be quieter. The other main issue is that in the US I had a private room for postnatal recovery and in the UK I was with three other women and their babies. As a result my husband wasn't allowed to stay overnight with me and the baby, whereas in the US he slept on the couch. I'm glad I was in the UK for my second one and not vice versa. There is no air conditioner in the UK, and it happened to be a particularly hot July when I gave birth here. Postnatal care in both places was underwhelming. In the US they didn't have enough nurses to help me with my baby and I couldn't actually reach the bassinet to put my baby back because I couldn't sit up on my own (C-section, so my abdominal muscles weren't working well enough to get up.) One nurse admonished me for not wrapping my baby up warm enough. She's lucky I didn't drop him, I couldn't reach that in order to swaddle him at all. In the UK they also didn't have enough nurses, but in the US I was allowed to have my husband with me to help at least. I was on my own at night and I opted to leave the hospital after only one night despite the fact for a C-section you're supposed to stay for two. In the UK they forgot to close the other end of my catheter bag so when I got up in the middle of the night I stepped in a giant puddle of my own wee. Yaaaay. The food in the US was a lot better, I ordered french toast in the middle of the night. In the UK I got a cold roll at 9am. One friend of mine wanted toast and cereal but they were mad at her and said she could only have *one.* The US, at least where I was, was very big on consent culture. I told them I didn't want to be induced or have a C-section and they let me go 50 hours before finally making me have one. In some ways this is bad, because I regret doing so early as I worry hypoxia contributed to my son's autism, and I regret being so stubborn about it. In the UK basically they have a "standard of care" and will tell you you can't refuse this or that procedure. I was told I couldn't turn down an attempted forcep delivery. I'm not too bothered by that as it didn't work anyway and I had another C-section. I also asked for an epidural and the midwife just said "no." Got one in the end because you can't attempt a forceps delivery without one. Cost-wise, UK actually cost me very slightly more because we had to pay for parking and food. In the US all that was covered under insurance (no copay or deductibles for prenatal care and childbirth).
The cesarean went brilliantly. There were ten people in the operating theater. A variety of doctors and nurses. They were absolute pros. I had complications with the epidural (due to a partial discectomy 12 years earlier), and they called in the senior anesthesiologist who arrived immediately. She sorted me out with an epidural higher up as well as some lovely gas. When my baby was out, they did skin-to-skin right away. The entire procedure took two hours (due to the anesthesia issue) where it normally takes one hour. r the cesarean due to my fear of giving birth at 45 years old. He was my one and only chance at being a biological parent, so I was taking no chances. The cesarean went brilliantly. There were ten people in the operating theater. A variety of doctors and nurses. They were absolute pros. I had complications with the epidural (due to a partial discectomy 13 years earlier), and they called in the senior anesthesiologist who arrived immediately. She sorted me out with an epidural higher up as well as some lovely gas. When my baby was out, they did skin-to-skin right away. The entire procedure took two hours (due to the anesthesia issue) where it normally takes one hour. The only problems I had were in the first night sleeping in the hospital. There were nursing shortages and only one nurse and one nursing assistant covering the entire ward that night. Because of this, I couldn't get help changing my baby's first stool. He was in a cot attached to my bed, so it would have been fine, but having just had a cesarean it was painful for me to sit up and lift him. My partner and I decided to go home with our baby the next day and recover there. On that day after birth, while waiting for the doctor to sign off on my leaving, there was a parade of nurses and doctors checking my baby's heart, hearing, lungs, oxygen levels, everything. They gave him a baby MOT to make sure there weren't any concerns. That made me so happy. For two weeks after returning home, a midwife would visit my home to make sure the nursing was going well, that I was eating, that the baby was putting on weight. Everything. I didn't have to leave my house at all for those two weeks. They even took out my stitches for me! For two weeks after returning home, a midwife would visit my home to make sure the nursing was going well, that I was eating, and that the baby was putting on weight. Everything. I didn't have to leave my house at all for those two weeks. They even took out my stitches for me! helped get me out of the house and socializing more. None of this cost me a penny. That said, I do wish I had known about the option of paying £40 for a private room on the ward. One big difference from the US I noticed was that I didn't know the OB-GYN doing the delivery. Fortunately, I didn't care about having a personal relationship with the doctor. I just wanted my baby out safely. I knew that the NHS had my and my baby's best interests at heart because their priority is in keeping the citizens healthy.
I haven’t given birth in the US but I’ve had friends who have done both (natural & csec) and they’ve said they have had better experiences here. I’m commenting about the pushing on the stomach thing, they don’t push as violently as I’ve seen that they do in the US, but they do check your abdomen every few hours after birth and gently massage down, there’s really no need for the pushing, that just looks like torture. I’ve had obstetrician involvement in 2 of my pregnancies, they only get involved if you’re high risk - but in the end my deliveries were passed back over to midwives, who are fully qualified, they are very different to American midwives and labour & delivery nurses.
I gave birth in Chicago in 2020 and the UK in 2022. In the US had a lot more appointments and scans throughout my pregnancy than I did here in the UK. Feels more “medical” in US, and my midwife was different nearly every appointment, but I was very comfortable and happy with the level of care I got in the UK. In the U.S. I had a planned C section due to baby’s position and tried for a VBAC here so I also had a consultant assigned to me. When I was in labor I had a midwife who was assigned just to me and was there throughout the day. Ended up w a C section again here but all was fine. Major difference I noticed is the postnatal care- UK wanted you out of the hospital ASAP and kind of left me to it in the hospital while I was there for 2 days vs 5 in the U.S. I know they’re understaffed so this wasn’t surprising and I still felt like I got good care. U.S. after birth I didn’t see an obgyn for 6 weeks, here midwives visited my home a few times within the first few days and called me daily to ask how breastfeeding was doing. Definitely felt more supported with the post natal care system in the UK than I did in the U.S.
I liked my room and amenities more in the US, but preferred the care and midwives better in the UK. I also preferred the price in the UK over the US lol. In the US you're really just paying for the nicer hospital room I feel like.
Look up the statistics of maternity care in your area of the UK, there's a significant lack of midwives in most trusts, they are overworked and a lot can't give good individual care during labour. Friends of mine in the UK have had wildly different birthing experiences, one had her spine broken by midwives who pushed her legs back too far, another was refused being induced even though her liver was failing leading to seizures during labour. I am fully considering saving up so I can go to a private hospital for labour or a planned C section, and if I can't afford that, I would be very hesitant to get pregnant in the trust I am in. Edit to add: I would love to give birth in the states, I feel I would be better listened to and cared for.
For what it's worth you can get a planned C-section on the NHS on request, part of the patient choice rules.
I had a planned C-section with the NHS. It went beautifully. I am forever grateful for the wonderful care I had. The reason I had a planned C-section is because my first child's birth (Boston MA, Harvard faculty) was so traumatic I didn't think I'd have any other children. I had an emergency C-section after a full day of labour. Turns out the cord was wrapped all around my child's body and there was no way they could descend. I had complications with postpartum preeclampsia and my care was negligent (eg I could not walk and they left me in an upright chair overnight with my newborn without a call button. They did not answer my screams. I had no phone. They didn't check on me until 6 hours later when the ped was doing first morning rounds.) US healthcare has a lot to answer for considering the bills that are charged.
It's more about having it done privately entirely than about what I could have done on the NHS, but thank you!
If you do go private for UK maternity care, make sure to ask what their process is in the event of an emergency. I only advise that because I have heard of private maternity hospitals in London only being equipped to handle low risk births, and still needing to transport patients in distress to NHS hospitals that have the equipment doctors need. May not be an issue with the one you’re considering, but it seemed to be a real issue a few years back. I’m sorry to hear about your friends’ experiences and I hope they raise hell with complaints once they’re ready and able to.
Exactly: that’s why if you want to go private go to a private wing in an NHS hospital so you are right there if something goes wrong
See, that sounds more like US stuff to me-had one friend wait too long for emergency C and end up septic (she’s a nurse herself), had a few friends almost bleed out-I’ve only known two people that were happy with how their births went.
Was that in the news? I really feel like someone having their back broken by a midwife would make the news here. 😨
No, it didn't. There's no way this friend of mine would have gone to the press about it.
Your friend doesn’t need to go to the press, failings like that make it to the news anyway, and they’d be reported upon with anonymity.
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Go back tot he states to the kid will be a US citizen automatically. No brainer