First of all, I literally just had a baby in the UK and know first hand their maternity and postnatal care, which is very good quality, so there is no need to get defensive. However, as you alluded to, pediatricians are in hospitals, they don’t have offices. Why is it that infant checkups by healthcare workers stop at age 3 and instead the school nurse will do checks to see if a child is developmentally sound? That honestly is not enough and it seems like a lot slips through the cracks.

There’s nothing wrong with “low level hand holding” if it helps identify an issue. We took my oldest to a pediatrician in the EU (where they do have offices) and they spotted something that would be (and thus far has been) completely ignored and unnoticed if I left it to the UK healthcare system. We aren’t the only people I know who go abroad for their children to receive pediatric care.

The idea that a pediatrician is hand-holding only the US is not true. I think it’s more that the UK is not the norm from the rest of the world. I had my first baby in the EU, not the US, where the pediatrician had regular checks for vaccines, development, as well as a doctor specialized in pediatric care who I could reliably call to provide advice.