Great Ormond Street...oh and snails

Every so often I like to get a big old dose of perspective on my life, particularly when I'm sliding into that terrible land called self pity.  So I watched BBC 1's documentary about the cardiac unit at GOS on i-player yesterday, and leaked  tears throughout.
Great Ormond Street is the one place I've found where the respect for parents and children alike, informs every conversation you have with every person there.  It's a place where no matter how different your child may look or feel in normal life, they fit in there and indeed, in our case, feel painted with luck and fortune around so much more challenging conditions.
The wonderful Dr Phil Rees was on screen a lot on this programme, showing his compassion and humanity at every point, more than a doctor but all a doctor should be.  Seeing the children who were featured, and their families, it's hard not to be incredibly moved and sad that they have to face the kind of thing a parent fears most.  But seeing all of these terribly ill children made me appreciate even more the happiness in Dr Rees's face last month when he told me that Louis' heart was clinically normal.  That was amazing to hear for me, and I suspect something he relishes as a doctor when so much of what he sees and delivers is painful to all involved.
So watch the show, if you want to open your soul up.

Now, then, a question about snails...possibly inappropriate after the above.
Last night on my path in North London, there was a veritable snail birthing clinic in existence.  Mummy snails, Daddy snails, midwives too I suspect, and tiny weeny baby snails all over the place.  All perilously close to being squished were I not so sharp sighted and security light so good.  But alongside the teeny tiny snails with their teeny tiny shells, were teeny tiny snails without shells, which I assume were slugs.
So question is, do the snails give birth to slugs too?  Are snails and slugs related?  Are snails surrogates for slugs because there were no adult slugs to be seen?  Like anywhere.
I'm very confused.
So I'm off to google it all now and if it's interesting, might report back