Hello JCP411, eileenf, and Elevatedspirit,
It's been awhile since I saw this thread. Truth be told, I completely forgot about it due to what had happened to us. Anyway, I came back here looking for answers to a different question. I was just surprised that I did, in fact have an account here.
To answer your questions, eileenf was right about everything that she had said about giving birth in another country and the challenges, rigors, and risks entailing travelling or giving birth "on the fly".
I for one, will vouch that she knows what she's talking about, and speaking from our own first hand experience.
The best laid plans of best intent are only as good as exactly that: ~plans. eileenf was also right in saying: that the "logistics reality is nowhere near the abstract"
To cut the story short: Yes...my wife and I did have plans of going to Canada, unfortunately my wife's sister and father had passed away consecutively in a very short span of time. So instead of going to Canada, we ended up having to go home to the Philippines traveling on her 5th month of pregnancy.
This is where eileenf's statements become gold: perhaps due to being stricken with grief and the plane travel, we ended up having to give birth "prematurely" at 24 weeks (6months). Our Child survived for another 8 months after her birth. We spent 7 months of it in a Neonatal ICU with innumerable surgeries. The bill skyrocketed, it ended up reaching roughly around USD 700,000, everything was still covered by insurance and we didn't have to pay a dime, but none of it mattered, because in the end we lost her.
take eileenf's advice. If anyone wants to do this, you'll have to plan and do it early. Try to get in the country as early as possible and, have your wife settled so she isn't subjected to undue stress. All that planning and good intent won't do squat if something happens in between to your pregnant wife and unborn child.
So in our case, that's where we ended up...just having plans.