Being pregnant in Finland - experiences

[Henry-Finland]

One more thing:
As you go first time to the 'Neuvola', they register your address. => The companies selling baby-stuff gets your address. => After a while you get droves of ads about baby-care and what without it can't survive..., to that extent that you feel yourself a bad mother if you do not buy this and that gizmo or cloth.
Forget it!
Do a study about their selling method. No baby-care paper will buy your story, as they are in the same "conspiracy". The concpiracy of selling you stuff, getting advertisemants fropm the companies etc.

While you are pregnant, if you have any time; do the clothes yourself. It will mean a lot later. You will keep those clothes and you need, if not earlier, them again when you become a grand-mother. It takes only twenty years or so. Most of the other stuff, the caretaking table and such can be made quite easy too. And the toys. Just remember to use edible colours and that everything should be big enough so that the baby can't swallow any parts. No glue.
To read for the baby from her early days is the absolute best thing you can do. If you are acting while reading, when the baby can follow you with her eyes, you will see how fun she will have. If you read some grim fairy tales of the Grimm brothers, soften your acting a little bit.
So, the only thing you really need to buy is a good pram.


Henry

[anaf505]

Great Topic!!!


I will due in 2 months, im still contacting Neuvola ( I was abroad for 3 months, having doctors in my home country) and im really new about this situation, dont know so much abt neuvola!!

UP!!

[nina2010]

Hi to all moms and moms to be !!!!!!!

I'm planning my first pregnancy with my finnish husband.So far nothing happened and therefore i was thinking to go
for the folliculometry .The clock is tiking and i don't want to wait
Before that i would need some good gynecologist at public health center .

Does someone knows some good gynecologist in Helsinki and what is the procedure, meaning should i go to my municipality public health center (im btw from Pasila, Helsinki)?

nina

[Sara]

Do you mind if I ask how old you are and how long you've been trying?

Its really normal to take upto a year to become pregnant, thats with both of you being in full working order and no problems.

I really dont know if they even offer that sort of scan here, at least in the UK its more common to run a set of blood tests that check the full level of required hormones and can also detect the rise and surge of the ovulation hormone.

Are you just trying as is or are you using addition help methods? If you havent already it would be really useful for you to sign up to Fertility Friend (take the free option for now). Try taking you basal temperature as soon as you wake in the morning, you need a special digital thermometer that meaures to .00 (these are not expensive. Other useful things to do are to take note of your cervical mucous as this changes drastically in the run upto ovulation and afterwards. Also you can buy OPK sticks, these detect ovulation (can be bought in a normal pharmacy here but there are much cheaper places if you go online). You urinate on one at the same time every day (afternoon is best) starting from a certain point in your cycle. These let you know when the ovulation hormone is starting to surge and basically its telling you to get busy, ovulation usually occurs around 12-36 hours after a positive OPK.

Sorry if you know all of these, if you dont Id be happy to give you more information if you want

[CH]

I'm planning my first pregnancy with my finnish husband.So far nothing happened and therefore i was thinking to go
for the folliculometry .The clock is tiking and i don't want to wait
Before that i would need some good gynecologist at public health center .

Does someone knows some good gynecologist in Helsinki and what is the procedure, meaning should i go to my municipality public health center (im btw from Pasila, Helsinki)?

Yeah, as Sara said, it is seen as "normal" to take up to a year, so if you go on the public side they will most probably not do anything until you have tried for a year (less if you do know you have some problem, like endometriosis... although I have heard of some gyns still insisting on the one year). But yes, the way to do it on the public side is to go to your terveyskeskus gynecologist of your municipality. Usually they then do some basic blood work, and may start you on ovulation stimulating drugs. So, well... if you want to check on your follicle growth I would go private, and actually I would suggest going straight to a fertility clinic even if you just want to have a basic check up on your fertility... I don't trust "ordinary" gyns to know too much about fertility issues (besides giving you a standard dose of Clomifen and to call them back in x months if it doesn't work... the "the 2 headache pills and call me in the morning" version in the gyn world).

I also second Sara's suggestion of tracking your ovulation. Like she said, there are lots of tools for that. There is even an ovulation "computer" that you can buy in the pharmacy, that will tell you... um... when to get busy (basically, a few days before ovulation and the day you ovulate). I also really recommend the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler. It explains really well how to track the bodily signs of ovulation and how to also detect anovulation.

[nina2010]

Thank you Sara and CH,

I appreciate your answers .
My husband and I are 34, 35 age and we have been trying couple of months , not a whole year though.
Lots of women are saying that LH ovulation stripes test witch you can buy in pharmacy are not precise and everybody recommended folliculometry ........that's why i ask.
I will start with measuring temperature and i'm also taking Vitex agnus cactus capsules.
BTW what is Fertility Friend and where to sign for it

[CH]

Ahh, a couple of months is nothing (honestly!). But when/if you have tried for half a year, you could try to get the public doc to do something due to your age (I don't remember what age they go by, though). But... like I said... you can always go private.

Ok guys... if there is anybody here, look away just about... now...

The easiest way, at least for me, to check for ovulation is to check the mucus. See for instance here: http://www.estronaut.com/a/ovulation_fertility.htm
When it is clear and streachy, more or less exactly like egg white, you are just about to ovulate, either the same day or the next. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge!!! After this the chance of conception drops close to nill. I honestly think it is a good way to know your own body and cycle, no matter if one is trying to get pregnant or not. Anyway, combine this with a temperature chart, and you should be able to follow your cycle pretty precisely.

Oh, and I would guess the Fertility Friend is this one: http://www.fertilityfriend.com/
Hmm... that site seems to have some really good information, too! Nice one!

Oh, oh!!! And good luck!!!!!

[nina2010]

THANKssssssss

[emimi]

Also a private gynecologist can refer a couple to public fertility clinic. In our case I had an ovary sonogram privately (in Mehiläinen) and this Dr referred us to Naistenklinikka fertility clinic - at this point we had been trying for about 10 months and we got the first actual fertility treatment appointment in 2 months after the referral. I'm pretty sure we saved several months by starting with a private gynecologist instead of terveyskeskus GPs. Also my husband's sperm count was checked privately to speed things up a bit - we maybe spent some extra 150 euro but now have twins kicking in my belly, ready to be born any moment And a warning: do not agree to take ovulation inducing meds like Clomifen without control sonograms, it's very easy to end up carrying multiples and I cannot say I've had an easy pregnancy.

Oh and those LH tests were an essential help for us - both for realizing that I was not ovulating, as well as spotting the succesfull assisted ovulation The Clearblue ones with a smiling face are easier to interpret that the regular cheap ones. Just take care that you do the test at the right time, for many enough days.

[nina2010]

Emimi thank you ....
Sorry for asking but did you have an insemination at the fertility clinic or its just happened after 10 month naturally?

[emimi]

Nina: We had an insemination scheduled for the successfull cycle but it was cancelled because of double ovulation. In Finland fertility clinics try to avoid multiples.
I used Clomifen for ovulation induction in the cycle in question and had the number of follicles checked They did not want to inseminate with two follicles but also did not ban the "old-fashioned method" that did the job for us. Sometimes intercourse is banned if the number of follicles is very high.

Totally it took about 1,5 yrs to get pregnant: 10 months before my private Gyn appt, then some 2-3 months waiting for the first fertility clinic appt and 3 cycles of examinations and tests. Be prepared that it takes a couple of cycles to do all the necessary examinations and actual treatments are started only after this.

[nina2010]

Okey ......and Big Congratulation Emimi

[Rip]

One thing worries me a lot: when is the first ultrasound?
Because I think it would be great to have an ultrasound already at the 6th week, when the heart starts beating, so it's secure that the baby is there and fine.

The heart beats you can hear at the nurse visit. The ultra sound check up policy my vary based on the place you live but the town is required to offer the first free check up between some time during the period 10+0 weeks to13+6 weeks (weeks + days).

And another question, in total, how many appointments we are able to have, speaking about a health pregnancy?
Is it every 2 months until the 6th month, than it will get more often?

I don't remember now, but it is bit more frequent for those to whom it is the first pregnancy. At least for those having their second or later baby, the check ups will not be more often than once a month except during the last month (assuming nothing seems to be out of order), and even then around once in two weeks until (if) you are actually reach the due date.

I guess one could say that people here think that (if there have been no alarming signs) a pregnant woman is neither sick or injured, a relatively low level monitoring is sufficient (an effort (including financial incentives) is though put to have everybody covered on that level).

[EP]

You can schedule your neuvola visits to the days you don´t travel.

[Sara]

Your neuvola nurse wont listen for the heartbeat until around 16 weeks. Its really hard to find it before that and it causes stress thats not needed.

You make your appointments with your nurse at the end of an appointment so you can make it to suit yourself or then call and change it if its turns out you cant make it.

First scan is around 12 weeks, they wont do it before unless there is some problem or uncertainity of dates. You can of course pay to go private but considering you are 8 weeks already its not so far off. Earlier scans arent medically needed, the baby is too small to check over and even at 6 weeks they can have problems seeing the hearbeat if earlier development has been a little slow.