Midwife and private room while delivery

kristiinafin · Post by **kristiinafin** » Tue Apr 06, 2010 10:50 am

Hello,

I discovered that I am pregnant (;) and now I am planning of course everything which is possible to plan.
I have heard from some friends that in Finland you cant pay / have own midwife avaiable only for you while delivery and own room as well.

Did anyone had any experience on that? Is it possible to have one, if yes, do you have contacts of hospitals? Is it only in private hospitals?

I find it hard to believe because in Estonia for example you say what you want and how you want to deliver the baby. And you pay for room and midwife which is assigned to you. I am not sure how the system works there, but it is working.

So any advices? I cant think to be in one room with x amount of women. I need own space and privacy.

BR,
Kristi

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EP · Post by EP » Tue Apr 06, 2010 11:26 am

Private hospitals don´t do deliveries, they don´t have facilities in case something goes wrong. There are so called "family rooms" in public hospitals where you are just with the father. You can request that but it is not quaranteed that it is available at the moment.

About 10 babies per year are born at home. You could consider that. But not many midwives are willing to do that.

I hate hospital rooms, I am always more tired after hospital than before, trying to sleep with 3-5 people I don´t know in the same room. But for having a baby, I am all pro hospital. Baby is the priority, not me. And after being in a situation where there were just the midwife and the father and me, and suddenly the crowd grew with three doctors in full surgery outfit, and ready to make an emergency section, I was just happy that I was in a hospital, never mind the snoring neighbours.

mita · Post by **mita** » Tue Apr 06, 2010 10:04 pm

You'll have your own midwife and room for the delivery. After the delivery the 2 -3 day hospital stay is when you either get a shared room or family room

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Tue Apr 06, 2010 10:50 pm

mita wrote:You'll have your own midwife and room for the delivery.

The delivery room is for you, but is your own midwife possible even if you'd be ready to pay for it? The standard I understand is to have one midwife to rotate around a few delivery rooms, and end of sift (change of midwives) was three times a day I guess.

oompah18 · Post by **oompah18** » Tue Apr 06, 2010 11:26 pm

I have never had the same midwife through all my 4 deliveries. usually the midwife changed shift during the time I was in labour, even though I was usually only in hospital for less than an hour before giving birth!!! On my last labour, the midwife changed shift about 3 minutes before I had to push, I couldn´t remember one midwife from another so I never got to thank them, but I DID meet one of mine at a party once: it was a conversation stopper as she said she was there during the birth of my firstborn! I belived her, but wouldn´t have known, so didn´t feel too embarrassed about sharing canapes with someone who had seen obviously not the best bits of my body

Tiwaz · Post by **Tiwaz** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 10:22 am

Rip wrote:
mita wrote:You'll have your own midwife and room for the delivery.
The delivery room is for you, but is your own midwife possible even if you'd be ready to pay for it? The standard I understand is to have one midwife to rotate around a few delivery rooms, and end of sift (change of midwives) was three times a day I guess.

No, you cannot have your own private midwife.

Private side does not deliver, public side charges same from everyone and gives same treatment to everyone.

You will have nice button at the end of the bed which you can use when you have some sort of emergency and within moments someone will drop by and check you up.

Unlike television would make you think, giving birth is not exactly sudden activity in huge majority of cases. It is not "oh gods I have first contractions! It's going to come any minute!" but takes a good while.
What is midwife going to do during those hours? Hold her hand? That is what dad (or support person in general) is there for.

Of course, if woman tries to stay home as long as virtually possible, you might end up with a rather problematic situation.

hannaht · Post by **hannaht** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 1:48 pm

For deliverly you will have your own room with which ever midwife that will be on duty that time. They are very proffesional and experienced you not should worry about it. Write down all your questions and when you go in for your pregnancy check ups ask your nurse all the questions that you might have, she'll have all the answers and will help put your mind at ease.

kristiinafin · Post by **kristiinafin** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 4:29 pm

Rip wrote:
mita wrote:You'll have your own midwife and room for the delivery.
The delivery room is for you, but is your own midwife possible even if you'd be ready to pay for it? The standard I understand is to have one midwife to rotate around a few delivery rooms, and end of sift (change of midwives) was three times a day I guess.

OMG, thats exactly what I dont want! 3 different persons and lot of stress!

kristiinafin · Post by **kristiinafin** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 4:32 pm

That is really frustrating. I guess I better go to deliver to Tallinn. Generally, most of things in Finland remind me the way they were done in Soviet Union time - communism, socialism, collectivism everywhere.

kristiinafin · Post by **kristiinafin** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 4:36 pm

I dont know how it is arranged in Estonia, but yes 1 midwife stays with you and you can also call you doctor (who has been dealing with you during pregnancy) and she / he will come even if its 3 am (you pay of course in advance for that service). But the payment is like 150 euro and then you have peace of mind that there will be person you know and who knows your pregnancy from A to Z.

In Japan for example private rooms after delivery are available, you can also order music, water therapy there, etc. And midwife is there whenever you need her even if you need her to hold your hand.

I just cant understand it. This is my delivery, and I want it to be special. Not to stand (or lay) like cow and wait some queue.

EP · Post by EP » Wed Apr 07, 2010 4:48 pm

communism, socialism, collectivism everywhere.

And one the world´s lowest infant mortality rates.

This is my delivery, and I want it to be special. Not to stand (or lay) like cow and wait some queue.

You don´t have lay if you don´t want to. And you can tell them what way you want to give birth. Some prefer to do that in water and some hospitals offer that alternative (among others). And believe me, every delivery is special. It is something you really cannot very much plan ahead because you never know how it will go.

kristiinafin · Post by **kristiinafin** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 5:02 pm

Maybe you are right. But I think you can prepare for it and do your best NOW... no? I mean chose the hospital, doctor, support person, position, room, colors and smells (order flowers), etc. I dont think that if all of the sudden Victoria Beckham for some reasons would have to deliver in Helsinki, she would stay in 3 person room... Not that I am VB, but what I am trying to say is: everything should be possible for money. here also.

Amandine.K · Post by **Amandine.K** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 6:47 pm

Regarding Japan, you do get a nice private room for one week, what they don't tell you is that you don't have your baby with you as he is automatically put in a nursery with a lot of other babies. Oh and you are also not allowed to take pictures of your own baby either... And that is from a top Tokyo maternity ward 20 months ago...

You will get a family room for yourself and your husband, I have never heard of a refusal for a family room, they have a lot of them. The only case when you will have to share with other women is if you get a C-section as you need careful monitoring you won't get in a family room.

You get a neuvola nurse, the same one all the time that will follow your pregnancy and might even become your baby's health nurse afterwards. You will always get a midwife, experienced and a doctor on hand here. During my latest labour I saw 2 different midwifes, the first one for the first 4 hours and the second one until I delivered my baby. My oldest daughters were delivered in the UK, I had a section and although I had a team of midwives assigned to me and that I had met all of them I ended up with a midwife I actually didn't know. And do you know what? I didn't care, as long as my babies were getting the best care that wa all that mattered.

simon · Post by **simon** » Thu Apr 08, 2010 9:24 am

Amandine.K wrote: And do you know what? I didn't care, as long as my babies were getting the best care that wa all that mattered.

And that is about all that you will care about at the time.

Tiwaz · Post by **Tiwaz** » Thu Apr 08, 2010 9:43 am

kristiinafin wrote:Maybe you are right. But I think you can prepare for it and do your best NOW... no? I mean chose the hospital, doctor, support person, position, room, colors and smells (order flowers), etc. I dont think that if all of the sudden Victoria Beckham for some reasons would have to deliver in Helsinki, she would stay in 3 person room... Not that I am VB, but what I am trying to say is: everything should be possible for money. here also.

No, you cannot prepare for it and do your best now.
Deliveries are never predictable, trying to plan how it goes only results in miserable failure in most cases.

As for going to Estonia...

Are you aware that Estonia has over double the infant mortality Finland has?
Finland is about 3,4 deaths/1000 live births and Estonia over 7,3

During birth, you will see doctor at best very shortly. Or two doctors, one checking up how the progress is going at beginning and another one to set up epidural.

And why the hell would hospital matter? Or doctor? They know their jobs, as proven by extremely low infant mortality. Only 8 nations globally manage to have smaller infant mortality.

By the way, forget colors, smells etc. You will be far busier trying to handle with actually giving birth to give a damn. It is not like in the television.

As for sharing rooms. You do not share actual room where you give birth, that is always private.
You do share room after birth when you are on maternity ward. Maybe you are lucky and you get private room if there aren't many births taking place in the hospital, but if there are you might even end up in the corridor.

Either way, mother and child will rarely spend more than 2 nights at the hospital if there is nothing wrong in either of them.
That time one can survive even in shared room or corridor.

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