Haikaranpesä?

[Misku]

Hi all,

I'm four months pregnant, almost due for my second ultrasound, and hoping to give birth in the Haikaranpesä ward of Kätilöopisto. Has anyone else given birth there? What was your experience like?

I'm also wondering if anyone has had difficulty getting a place in Haikaranpesä. I understand it's necessary to sign up after the second ultrasound as spaces apparently fill up quickly, but I wonder if contacting them even at this point will guarantee a place. My husband and I are moving to Helsinki from outside Uusimaa in the next month, so there's the potential for some delay in the usual prenatal care routine.

Many thanks in advance!

[Lisa 15]

From what I rememebr, if you don't register, you won't get a place, that is sure, now if you register, it doesn't garantee you aplace as they can not know in advance how many babies will be born at the same time as yours.

[Misku]

Thanks, Lisa. I definitely will register, but it hadn't occurred to me that even then a place might not be available. Well, I suppose I'll just have to wait and see.

If anyone has experience of the place, I'd be grateful to hear of it!

[Lisa 15]

I had my 2 first kids in katilönopisto. The 1st one oin hte normal board, it went fine, I ebven got lucky to have a nurse that spoke English. The 2nd one, I could register to Haikaranpesä, the nurse didn't speak any English, but it went very well too. YThe thing I didn't like back then was during the info tour, they show us a video about breast feeding that I found really agressive. I felt that they were really not considering the possibility that you might not want to breast feed. LAter on, after having a mastitis, they were again trying to force me to breast feed against my will, but fortuynately, I had enough self confidence to tell them that I'll do the way I think is best for both my child and myself and I got really really angry at the nurse trying to make me feel guilty as I woldn't go her way.
Apart from that, the birth itself went well

Good luck!

[Misku]

Oh gosh, well I'm happy to hear that the birth part was a good experience! I suppose I'll be in the regular Kätilöopisto wards if Haikaranpesä doesn't work out, so great to hear that your birth experience there was also positive.

Thanks again, Lisa!

[anna80]

I had scheduled CC in Kätilööpisto last year. Everything went just fine, no problems afterwards. We´ve got a family room easily and our nurse spoke fluent english, just like the other nurses. We had to take care of our baby without any bigger support from them but I didn't complain about that at all. We had our small family time there And yet the brest feeding was also a bit stressful. Somehow they manage to get me so confuse about the whole thing, that I was just happy going home. Just then everything calm down.
Good luck!

[Misku]

Thanks for the response, Anna! I just got on the Haikaranpesä list, though of course I don't yet know if I'll get to give birth there. But either way, I'll be in Kätilöopisto. Just had the second ultrasound and was pleased with the experience. I'm trying to do everything in Finnish, but it's really good to know that the nurses all speak English! It's occurred to me that my language skills might go out the window in the excitement of labor.