Being pregnant in Finland - experiences

[Amandine.K]

They dont do blood test here to check your bhcg levels unless they think you're miscarrying. To be honnest there is no much point of doing a lot of examination before week 12. I know it's frustrating but you're very early in your pregnancy so there's nothing much they can check. If your home test was positive then that's it you're pregnant. In your first appointment theyll take blood samples but not to check the pregnancy hormones. They'll check your blood type, your HIV status, Hep. B and other stuff.

Enjoy! It seems like an eternity but it does go fast

[Gigi]

Hei Madga,

Congratulations... And it's true what Amandine says. And I have to say that I was also shocked when I heard that they didn't do a bloodtest, but the urine test is equally trustworthy. With me they even suggested that I could come and do a urine test in neuvola, but as I also had done 3 tests at home I was pretty sure. BUT as I miscarriaged twice, with the 3rd pregnancy I tested more then 3 times... almost every week until I went to neuvola pure waist of money, but I was that insecure.

And how harsh it might sound, they indeed can't do a thing before week 12. You have to trust nature, take good care of yourself and wait.... Very frustrating and again a culture difference that you have to learn to live with. Because (as I said already many times) children's mortality is one of the lowest in the world in Finland, so they must know what they are doing here!

And I am by now a happy mom of a half Finnish boy And also now I am still experiencing frustrating culture differences (or maybe it is just our nurse) with our lastenneuvola... but I think I will last it! At least we have taken an insurance for our son, so we can go private without any problem!

Lots of success and enjoy your pregnancy,

GIGI

[camomila]

I have two children and in both times, my experience was great.
I gave birth in two different hospitals. I was treated quite good. I am very very pleased to have given birth here.
I must say that the fact I speak finnish, made understand everything as I was explained in detail each moment. I have noticed that many nurses dont speak much English, so they may not feel confortable speaking it.
Furthermore I want to say, that the mortality rate in Finland, when giving birth, is 0. These people are prepare for all kind of emergencies, so it is quite safe to deliver here. I am quite happy actually.

[mvgrogan]

I have 2 children - 3 year old Hanna born in UK and 8 week old Xander, born in Turku, Finland.

Each pregnancy & birth experience was different and without waffling on for pages & pages I must say my finnish experince was better!

My finnish is very poor so I was relying on my husband for information/translation during the pregnancy but my midwife (at neuvola) was really good and was happy to explain anything in english if needed - it did help that it was a second pregnancy, so I had some idea of what was going on, anyway.

The delivery was drastically different - lots of information/explaination of what was going on at every stage... it was only 4.5 hours, as opposed to 14.5 the first time round.... but still the midwives made time to keep me informed what was happening. The hospital staff (TYKS) were all friendly and helpful and approachable - almost all of them spoke english and those who didn't obviously understood some (my embarrassing attempts at finnish might have helped).

As an older mum, my pregnancy was not fun - I had morning sickness for most of it - and taking care of a toddler while being pregnant is no fun, either! But that's nothing to do with being in Finland or elsewhere and my midwife (at neuvola) was very supportive, offering contact information for counselling/therapies as & when required - it was great to simply unload regularly, too!

....and I wasn't going to waffle...sorry! I realise this is very non-specific but it it positive, I hope for potential new mums in Finland (well, Turku, at least!)

congrats to all the new mums & mums-to-be on here

nuff said

[panda_123]

taxoplasmosis - I believe - in Canada is the infection or poisoning in regards to handling cats as pets and their litter.
In a blood test the doctors are able to test if your body is immune to it. If you are not - the doctor often suggests that you do not change the cat's litter whatsoever unless absolutely necessary. If absolutely necessary - then gloves are required to be worn (strongly recommended) and washing of your hands frequently.

[Amandine.K]

For taxoplasmosis if you are tested negative (as in never exposed to it) you should also avoid eating salad (especially in restaurant) that you are not sure have been washed properly. They don't test it but if you ask they'll do it. Same for things like rokkovirus, we had an outbreak at my daughters' school and I wasn't sure I had it as a kid so they tested me. It's not offered but if you ask they'll check for you.

[Mirjanni]

I don't have experience about being pregnant, in Finland or elsewhere, but I do know about toxoplasmosis.
I've understood that you don't get tested here during pregnancy unless you have a specific reason. If you are positive, then you don't have anything to worry about, the baby is safe. If your test is negative, the infection during pregnancy might cause miscarriage or severe illness on your newborn baby.

So how can you make sure you don't get toxoplasmosis? You don't really need to know whether you are positive or negative. Just WASH YOUR HANDS before eating anything or putting them near your mouth. Sorry for shouting, but that fact cannot be stressed too much. The most common places you can get toxoplasmosis from are raw vegetables that haven't been washed properly and undercooked meat. So eat your steaks well done and don't eat anything raw you haven't washed yourself. What it comes to cats, it's much less likely to catch the protozoa from them. Not all cats are carriers and the carriers don't carry the contagious form all the time. The infection from cat to human happens through feco-oral route and only after the feces has stayed in the litter box for a couple of days. Toxoplasma in fresh cat feces is not contagious. So clean the litter box every single day, or better still, make your husband clean it! Most cats are very clean animals and it has proven difficult to find Toxoplasma from the fur or paws of a cat who is known to be a carrier and in contagious phase. You might actually get Toxoplasmosis more easily from a dog that has been rolling over in kitty poop outside... So you can't really avoid all theoretically possible Toxoplasma sources! JUST MAKE SURE you don't put anything contagious in your mouth. It's really that simple. If you don't believe me, ask veterinarian Seppo Saari, he knows everything worth knowing about parasites. Don't ask from your doctor or take hisr info with a pinch of salt, they don't usually know enough about what are basicly animal diseases.

[santtu1979]

Hi,
I am pregnant of 7 weeks now and on 15.10 I will have my first appointment to Neuvola. I am really concerning because is my first baby and the system here is very different from my own country. So my question is: what kind of exams they make you during the pregnancy? what they do in Neuvola? do they do the amiocenthesis?and what else?
Please someone answer me, I am living in Kempele (9km from Oulu) and I really don´t know what should I expect.
Sandra

[onkko]

Maternity clinics provide family support, with attention to relationships and parenting. Special emphasis is placed on the role of fathers and parental responsibility. Expectant mothers normally meet with a nurse and doctor 11-15 times during pregnancy. Attending a maternity clinic is one of the preconditions for eligibility for maternity benefit.

In addition, parents take part in family and childbirth preparation sessions. Visits monitor the progress of the pregnancy and arrange for mothers to receive follow-up treatment in the event of problems. Mothers are offered screening for foetal chromosome and growth defects during pregnancy.

Child health clinics assess the physical, mental and social condition of children under school age, provide vaccinations and support parents in providing secure, child-focused rearing, care and in attending to relationships. The clinics also promote healthy growing environments for children and healthy family lifestyles.

Support is provided by home visits by a public health nurse before and after the birth of a child, and at other times if needed, plus by parents' groups.

Child health clinics try to identify problems affecting families with small children at an early stage and to arrange for appropriate help. The clinics carry out multi-professional collaboration with other professionals working with young families.

Copied from http://www.stm.fi/en/social_and_health_ ... ty_clinics

[Gigi]

@Sandra: I think if you read through this topic you will find already many answers. If you still have questions, please ask and we'll try to answer them

[santtu1979]

Thank you so much for your help! I will inform you how it will go!

[tunkkari]

I moved here just over a year ago when I was 7 months so most my care was in the uk but obviously the last 2 months here. Things were different here than the uk eg, no pethadine or diamorphine only cervical block, gas and air or epidural, which was a shock to me, also the amount of pv(internal exam) ante natal and post natal was different to the uk, you only really get them in labour there now, but on the whole it was as good as giving birth can be lol. Also had to stay in hospital for 3 days where I was used to coming home after 6 hours, It was a nice rest however but I longed to see my other kids.

Anyway I am prenant again, about 6 weeks and not too sure how things go now, when do I actually book in here? How many internals will I get lol sounds silly but I hate them, not that i suppose anyone likes them. What are the scans like here I would love a 3D one lol. Its my 6th time but im a bit nervous this time especially with the language barrier.

[Gigi]

Anyway I am prenant again, about 6 weeks and not too sure how things go now, when do I actually book in here? How many internals will I get lol sounds silly but I hate them, not that i suppose anyone likes them. What are the scans like here I would love a 3D one lol. Its my 6th time but im a bit nervous this time especially with the language barrier.

Congratulations!

As it is your 6th time you have tons more experience than I, but as I have been only pregnant here, maybe I can try to answer your questions. First of all it is important to mention that it differs from community to community.

About booking a time. You can call already now to your local "äitiysneuvola" and you will probably get a time when you are about 9w to do some paperwork and maybe take some first bloodtests.

In my case I got only 5 internals before giving birth. At 9w and 36w with the local doctor and 12w - 20w and 38w in the hospital. In this area you get 3 scans in the hospital (12, 20 and 38w), but I think the 38w is not everywhere done. Again it differs from community to community, as in my local clinic they have a very good new ultrasound-machine (I have no idea what it is called) and if I remember right I got about 10 ultrasounds in total during my sons pregnancy. And now I am pregnant again (jipii) and at 10w I have already had 2 scans and the 3rd one is planned when I am 12w.

For 3D or 4D scans I think you have to go private. Actually just discussed it with a friend this morning because they had a 4D scan with their previous one and you have to go private here, it cost 150€ but the scan lasted about 1,5h and was done by the best gyne in the area.

And about the language... My nurse had prepared everything in English when I went there for the 1st time, but as my Finnish is rather fluent we never used English. In the hospital I asked for an English speaking nurse, but never good one. Maybe it was my own fault as I asked it in fluent Finnish. But I wanted to have one as I didn't know if I would still understand Finnish when I was having awful pains... In the end it didn't matter as I shouted in at least 3 different language at the heat of the moment.

Good luck!

[tunkkari]

thanks for the info, not so much different apart from the internals lol thats the bit I hate, makes you wonder how I am onto number 6 lol.

[jen]

Like Gigi says it differs from area to area.

Up here in Oulu I has 2 internals and 1 scan (I did get a second scan but only because I was measuring unusually large, and we had to pay 25€ for it). I had no ante-natal classes, no hospital tour, when I asked what facilities there were available at the hospital the nurse said "Well you tell us what you want and I will tell you if they have it" and refused to give any information away freely. The concept of a birth plan is alien to them so I made up my own and I really had to push to have anything different from the "standard" (my request to not have the vitamin K injection was completely ignored and given anyway). I managed to convince the paediatrician to discharge us before the normal 48 hour minimum stay but we were billed for staying 3 days anyway because we went in on Sunday night and left on Tuesday morning.

I never had a problem with people speaking english, I was able to communicate with the neovola nurse, the midwives at the hospital and the paediatrician without any problems.

Generally I found the approach to pregnancy and birth a lot more clinical/mechanical than my experience in Scotland. Like many things in Finland, it seemed like the people are there to serve the system rather than the system being there to serve the people.