The tests the public system covers, the windows that do not come back, and the deadlines that cost money if you miss them. With the official source under each one.
full — United Kingdom
Tests, exemptions and deadlines, each from the national source.
We are not a local edition: we say that a thing exists and that it has a date, in the words you will need at the counter — then we send you to the body that decides.
Appointments, scans, midwife care and the birth itself are free at the point of use on the NHS: there is no charge to pay and no code to show. What does cost money in England is prescriptions and the dentist — and that is exactly the part the maternity exemption certificate removes.
Source: NHS — NHS maternity care and benefits when you're pregnant · re-read Sep 8, 2026
With a MatEx, NHS prescriptions and NHS dental treatment cost nothing throughout the pregnancy and for 12 months after the birth. You apply on form FW8, signed by a midwife, GP or health visitor, as soon as you know you are pregnant. The certificate is backdated by one month only from the day the application arrives: apply late and you have paid, and that money does not come back.
Source: NHSBSA — Maternity exemption certificates · re-read Sep 8, 2026
Those on certain benefits, or under 18, can get milk, infant formula, fruit, vegetables and vitamins at no cost. It is a prepaid card rather than a refund, and it is claimed separately from the MatEx.
Source: NHS — NHS maternity care and benefits when you're pregnant · re-read Sep 8, 2026
It is the certificate your midwife or doctor can issue only from week 20, and without it your employer cannot pay statutory maternity pay. There is a limit on the other side too: handed in too late relative to the birth, the pay is no longer due. Ask for it as soon as you can.
Source: GOV.UK — Maternity pay and leave: how to claim · re-read Sep 8, 2026
By the end of the 15th week before the baby is due — the qualifying week — your employer must know the due date and when you want your leave to start. That same week also decides whether Statutory Maternity Pay is due at all: it takes 26 weeks with the same employer running into it. For the pay itself, give 28 days' notice before it starts.
Source: GOV.UK — Maternity pay and leave: how to claim · re-read Sep 8, 2026
While you are pregnant, and for 12 months after the birth, NHS prescriptions and NHS dental treatment cost nothing — but only with a maternity exemption certificate. It is form FW8, signed by your midwife, GP or health visitor. The catch: the certificate is backdated by one month only from the day the application arrives, so anything paid before that does not come back.
Source: NHSBSA — Maternity exemption certificates · re-read Sep 8, 2026
A one-off £500 payment for a first baby, where you or your partner get one of the qualifying benefits. It must be claimed within 11 weeks of the due date or within 6 months of the birth — after that it is gone, and there is no way to get it later. It does not exist in Scotland, where the Pregnancy and Baby Payment takes its place.
Source: GOV.UK — Sure Start Maternity Grant · re-read Sep 8, 2026
This is the route for those who cannot get Statutory Maternity Pay: self-employed, a recent change of employer, or helping a self-employed partner. You can apply once you have been pregnant for 26 weeks, and payment can start any time from 11 weeks before the due date. To get the full amount, claim within 3 months of the date you want it to start — later, the earlier weeks are simply not paid.
Source: GOV.UK — Maternity Allowance: how to claim · re-read Sep 8, 2026
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland a birth must be registered within 42 days; in Scotland within 21. Nothing else moves before that is done — Child Benefit, for one, can only be claimed 48 hours after the registration.
Source: GOV.UK — Register a birth · mygov.scot · re-read Sep 8, 2026
You can claim 48 hours after registering the birth. A claim is backdated by 3 months at most, so every month of delay beyond that is a month that is never paid and cannot be recovered.
Source: GOV.UK — Child Benefit: how to claim · re-read Sep 8, 2026
the paperwork, in the right order
The tests of a physiological pregnancy, trimester by trimester — the part that is nearly the same everywhere.
The tests, trimester by trimester →General information, not legal or medical advice. Rules change: the date next to each source is the day a person last re-read it. For your own case, the body named on the page is the one that answers.
In the app the same deadlines arrive as a reminder, counted from your own due date.
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