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Having a Baby in the UK: the whole journey, one calm guide

You are pregnant in the UK and the information is everywhere at once: the NHS website for your scans, GOV.UK for your pay, mygov.scot or nidirect if you live there, your employer's HR portal, a stack of forms with letters and numbers for names. Having a Baby in the UK puts it all in one book, in the order you will need it, with every deadline and every amount checked on the official sites as of October 2026.

What is inside

A 63-page PDF with more than 12,000 words of text, 28 tables, 75 tick-box items and 18 boxes on what to do and when to call, in 28 chapters.

  1. The UK system in one page. Who looks after you (midwife, GP, obstetrician, sonographer, health visitor, registrar), your maternity notes, the four nations, and the numbers to call.
  2. The deadlines that matter. One table from the positive test to the first vaccines, and a worked example to find your expected week of childbirth and qualifying week.
  3. Starting your care. Self-referral, the booking appointment by 10 weeks, what is asked and checked, and the questions to bring.
  4. Your antenatal appointments, week by week. The full NHS schedule and an appointment log to fill in.
  5. Scans and screening. The 12-week scan, the combined test, the 20-week scan and its 11 conditions, and your choices at every step.
  6. Vaccines in pregnancy. Flu, whooping cough and RSV: when, and why.
  7. Staying well, and when to call. Baby's movements, the symptoms never to sit on, and who to call at each stage.
  8. Choosing where to give birth. Home, midwife-led unit or hospital, compared, with the questions to ask.
  9. Free prescriptions, dental care and Healthy Start. The maternity exemption certificate and the Healthy Start card, step by step.
  10. Grants for the baby. Sure Start Maternity Grant, Scotland's Pregnancy and Baby Payment, Best Start Foods and Baby Box, Wales's Baby Bundles.
  11. Your rights at work. Paid time off, protection, your partner's appointments, and a letter to your employer you can adapt.
  12. Maternity leave and Statutory Maternity Pay. The rules, the claim, three worked pay examples and a worksheet for your own figure.
  13. Maternity Allowance. The 66-week test, self-employed rates and Class 2 top-ups, the MA1 claim.
  14. Paternity leave and pay. For fathers and partners of either sex.
  15. Shared Parental Leave and Pay. Eligibility for each parent, binding notice, blocks, SPLIT days.
  16. Neonatal care leave and unpaid parental leave.
  17. The first hours and days. Vitamin K, the newborn physical examination, hearing screening, the blood spot test, the red book.
  18. Registering the birth. Deadlines in each nation, documents, unmarried and same-sex parents, certificates.
  19. Child Benefit and the High Income Child Benefit Charge. Rates, the 3-month backdating rule, and a worked tax charge example.
  20. Midwife, health visitor, GP. Who looks after you after the birth, and the helplines the NHS recommends.
  21. The 6 to 8 week checks and your baby's vaccinations.
  22. Looking after your mind. Baby blues, postnatal depression, postpartum psychosis, and a support plan to fill in.
  23. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland side by side.
  24. Special situations. Self-employed, agency workers, solo mums, two mums and donor conception, two dads, surrogacy and parental orders, twins, neonatal care, loss, teenage mums, new to the UK.
  25. Month-by-month checklist, from the positive test to 16 weeks after the birth.
  26. Fill-in pages: my contacts, my key dates, my money plan, my questions.
  27. Glossary of 30 UK terms, from "booking appointment" to "SPLIT days".
  28. Bibliography: more than 50 official pages, each with its full address and the date it was checked.

Who it is for

  • You are expecting your first baby in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland and want to know what happens next, and what to claim, without reading twenty government pages.
  • You are moving to the UK, or have just arrived, and the NHS and the benefit system are new to you.
  • You are self-employed, an agency worker, a solo mum, in a same-sex couple or having a baby through surrogacy, and you want the rules that apply to you.
  • You want to give a genuinely useful present to someone who has just shared her news.

What it is, and what it is not

This book explains what the NHS, NICE and the UK governments say, in plain English, with pages to fill in. It is not medical, legal or financial advice and it does not replace your midwife, GP, employer's HR team or a specialist adviser. Rates change, usually every April: every amount is dated, and the bibliography tells you where to check the current figure. Everything you need to claim is also free on our UK guides; the book is for those who want it all organised, printable and in one place.

Instant PDF, with your name on the cover

The guide arrives as a PDF as soon as your payment goes through, with a personalised cover. Read it on your phone, or print the checklists, the key dates page and the money plan for your maternity folder.

Better together

For the pregnancy itself, week by week, pair it with The 40-Week Pregnancy Companion, part of the Pregnancy Pack ($59) and of The Complete Mamavela Library ($99).