Hi AsWife,
I gave birth in London before in a public hospital.
Apart from the long wait, different doctors would be seeing the mothers to be for every visit, so the doctors wouldn't have a clear history of you. They just read the comments written by the previous drs to do the check up.
Before I deliver, only my husband was with me in the room. When he saw the hair of my baby coming out, he then asked the midwife outside to come and help. The midwife did not take bath for my baby, just wipe her clean and asked my hubby to dress her.
Then I was asked to take shower alone immediately after the stitches were done.
And there's no air conditioning in the hospital as air conditioning is not common in London. I was so hot all day at the ward. Really bad experience.
I am not staying in UK for the birth of our baby. I have a Canadian passport and definitely feel more comfortable to go back to Canada for our big day. Plus my family's in Canada, parents would definitely want me to be by me for support.
Hubby will fly over in Jan to join us, hopefully, when he gets his paternal leave. This means he will miss a lot of the growth of our baby in my womb...
I am not confident enough about NHS here, from what hubby told me...