[tomo1340]

It is with great joy we find we are expecting another little one. :raebanana

However we are unsure whether to postpone completely until the baby is here then re start the process or carry on knowing that when the time comes to move my OH could be quite late on in pregnancy or we could have a new baby by then.

Things that concern us if we go before the birth is what the heck to do with the boys when labour starts if we haven't built a friendship up enough for someone to help out, and of course emigrating is stressful enough without throwing pregnancy into it.

Has any one made the move either being pregnant or with a very young baby?

We withdrew our EOI as we don't know what to do for the best. I think we could go along with it and get PR as I believe there is a window before you have to take residence and I have heard of someone flying out only to activate their PR which obviously isn't an ideal situation at all.

[jubjub]

Tomo, I did it, came here at 14 weeks pg, but we already had PR at taht stage. The only issue that you may find hard is getting a midwife... unless you go straight for an obstrician and pay to go private. It might be as well for you to stay in the system and finish the application, you can delay getting your visas put in the passports for 6 months to buy you a bit mroe time.

There are other folks who have done it too, one of them much later along, but I cant remember for the life of me who it was.

Have a look at these...

http://www.emigratenz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=9491&highlight=pregnancy

http://www.emigratenz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=3136&highlight=pregnancy

[jubjub]

Was soo busy typing the reply I forgot to say Congratulations!

[Lara Croft]

Hi - congratulations :)

My boss and his wife came out in August last year, and they had their 2nd child just after Christmas - so she would have been 5 months-ish when they arrived. And they already had a little boy (just over 1). He had to start work straight away, and I know she has found it hard going, but I can ask her about the practical side of things if you like?

She's lovely and I'm sure she won't mind - we were out together last night!

Jane

[bininalte]

Congratulations too!

I got here 28 weeks pregnant. Didn't bother about looking for a midwife as I thought it was too late for that. Registered with the local hospital and had my little one there 9 days ago. No problems, on the contrary, it was brilliant, see my earlier praises on the North Shore Hospital in Auckland. However, my OH is a Kiwi so didn't have to pay. We also have family here who helped looking after the other 2 kids while I was in labour. There is an organisation here called MAMA who sent me a list of midwifes. You could email them asking for the list and may be able to organise a midwife while still in the UK. Their email is mamaltd@ihug.co.nz. Best of luck!

bininalte

[tomo1340]

Many thanks everyone.

One thing we haven't though of is should we carry on with the view to heading out after the baby is born how would we include the newborn in the paperwork?

[jubjub]

They will add the new arrival onto your visa once they are born and you have a passport for them.

[tomo1340]

Excellent, so it's not a great problem then?

[Familyofmonkeys]

Many thanks everyone.

One thing we haven't though of is should we carry on with the view to heading out after the baby is born how would we include the newborn in the paperwork?

We had to make a similar decision ourselves. We decided to wait until the baby was born as our other two were only 3 and 1 at the time. We arrived when he was 12 weeks old. Quite a good age as he was not a tiny newborn but also not at weaning age which made things alot easier for travelling, less to pack etc.

We were just waiting for our PR visa when hw was born. We got his passport done the week after he was born (needed to register birth first) and then he needed to have medical before they would add him to our PR visas. Really silly at the medical as he was 3 weeks old. Dr asked for his 6 week checkup details...but he was too young for that. So then he asked for his red book, which I hadn't been given as he was born at home and we hadn't seen a health visitor at that point. In the end the Dr just did a standard 6 week check-up medical, cost £50.

On the whole though, it was very easy making the move with a young baby, and was much less of a worry than being heavily pregnant.

[tomo1340]

We had to make a similar decision ourselves. We decided to wait until the baby was born as our other two were only 3 and 1 at the time.

That is the same ages as mine so thats of great comfort. We haven't actually told our families the good news yet, really we would wait for 12 weeks anyway but my brothers second child is due any day now so we don't want to steal thunder. Lets hope no one come on these forums for a browse and finds out that way. I also can't wait to tell my Mother who has been great with me but apparantly freaked out with my brother by saying she was worried dhe didn't have enough days in the week to see the new one as 7 grandchildren are hard to time correctly so they all get equal time and she needs to rest in between, so number 8 will be a shock for her, especially as 4 of them are from her under 30 youngest lad (me:D). All joking aside she tries to do a 'mock horror' situation and put it on but part of me wants to ask her how she will manage to see the kids when we go to NZ anyway.

[Tia Maria]

Hello, I arrived pregnant, early enough to set up a midwife etc. I was, however, ill at the end of my pregnancy and I got an in-home nanny to help look after the children in the last month (we knew this was likely so had budgeted for this before we left the UK).

It was lucky we had, as on the morning I was due to go in, my son (and half his kindy) came down with a sickness bug, so we had to pick him up on the way to hospital and arrange to get the nanny to come down instead. He was contagious so obviously couldn't come into a ward of pregnant women! So I had to check in by myself while my OH waited for the Nanny to come. Luckily he got there just before they put me under (it was a C-section).

Then my OH and other son got it also, they couldn't visit me once the baby was born. It was quite a lonely week, but the staff were great and I really did get some quality time with my new baby. I had family phoning up from the UK and I couldn't let on either, as it would have upset them, when there was nothing they could do.

To top it all, our bathroom wasn't working so my OH had to check himself and the kids into a hotel on the same day!

So yes, lots went wrong, but having a Nanny in place meant we got through it. Plus the care I received at the hospital was fantastic - cheerful, helpful staff, my own room and the food was edible! Whereas, I'd had bad experiences in the UK, so it made up for everything. And when I got home the OH, boys and bathroom tiler were all there to greet me! :laugh

I was also really pleased with the aftercare I got in NZ.

Two extra points to consider, one for each way, so probably won't help with the decision!

1) Emigrating when pregnant can be harder as all those hormones really do add to any feeling of homesickness or 'culture shock'

2) Leaving with a newborn can be harder on grandparents etc, than leaving with a bump.

My Mum booked a flight to come visit a few weeks after the baby was born, so that was a bit of an added advantage for me, as she'd have probably left it longer otherwise!

Cheers

Tia

[incredible hulse]

My wife was 4.5 months pregnant when emigrating. We managed to get a midwife with not too much difficulties and the process was very smooth (so much so she's repeating within the next week or so all being well).
One thing to point out though is they now charge for additional scans (only the 20 wk one is free now) so if there are complications the costs can mount up.

A 'bonus' is the little one gets a NZ passport (as well as a UK one if you are from those parts) and can therefore get into Oz in the future if they want ;)

[Park City Partner]

I came over at 28 weeks pregnant but didn't look for a mid-wife as I went with a specialist for medical reasons. I will say NZ is a brilliant place to have a baby! I gave birth at North Shore hospital (a few weeks before Tia Maria) and was thrilled with the care I received there and also the post-natal care and Plunkett...fantastic! My friends home can't believe it when I tell them.

As someone said moving is emotional to start with and the hormones certainly add to it but what the h*** might as well go big!

This was my first child so I didn't have to worry about finding someone to look after the others but if you sign up for an ante-natal class when you get here at your local hospital you might make some friends fast that could help.

Good luck and congrats!

[ruzoko]

Hi, congratulations on your pregnancy.

Just want to share what happened to us, not scare-mongering in any way, but sharing information. This has not been an easy journey.

I was pregnant when we applied to NZ and co-incidentally my doctor was also pregnant and planning to emigrate to Oz. They wouldn't let her apply till after her baby was born, which seemed at the time to be odd and perhaps unreasonable. NZ had no such problems so we went ahead.

The acceptance came through just as I was being taken in with threatened extreme premature labour which then resulted in baby Kerenza being born at 24 weeks, with all the attendant worry and stress (and a two year old and six year old at home).

The point is that the NZIS refused to delay stamping our passports, even when we begged them, saying that our baby was on life support etc., it all fell on deaf ears. We basically had to waste a year of our LTBV while we waited for her to get off the O2 and then six months after that to be ok to fly, (Sure we could have just withdrawn the application, as they pointed out, which would have cost us roughly £1000).

As you can imagine, we had no interest in going anywhere initially anyway but it was really hard that the NZIS wouldn't listen and we were even told on one occasion in an email that if she didn't pass her health test then the baby wouldn't be able to come with us! (as if)

Kerenza is now over a year corrected (i.e. how old she should have been) but we have only been in NZ for three months and now have less than two years to fulfill the conditions of our visa.

The issue has rankled and we have made numerous complaints. last week we actually had a phone call from a supervisor who ....almost....apologised and admitted that mistakes had been made. (Actually I said that I would take his admissions as an apology - that's how much I needed one). I pushed him to reassure me that future women and their families would not be put under the sort of completely unnecessary stress that we were due to circumstances entirely out of our control, saying that if we could achieve that then at least something good would have come out of all our agonies.

I'm sure your pregnancy will be brilliant and you will have no such concerns but I think it's worth bearing in mind that as far as we are concerned from our experience the Australians have got this one right. There is nothing certain about pregnancy and the NZIS do not have a particularly human face although they did also admit that this was their first experience of such a situation.

So someone who had a premmie might benefit from our experience, but someone who had some other situation that they no nothing of would probably meet the same blank indifference.

BTW, Kerenza is an extremely bright, lovely and miraculous baby who is also very loud!

I wish you all your heart desires.