Midwife in Finland

[ursusarctos]

Ok, I know this is a long shot, but I'm going to cross-post it on a few boards and see if I might get a response by the time I (hopefully) get pregnant and need a midwife.

I live in Finland, and desire a homebirth for my (hopefully) future baby. I know that there are hardly any homebirth midwives in Finland. So. Is anybody a Finnish midwife? Does anybody know one? Know of one? Know of somebody who might know one? In the same predicament as me?

Thanks! :

[suziek]

My response is a total long-shot, too, but I did give birth in Finland in 2006. The birth was a hospital birth, but it was with a midwife and the entire experience were wonderful. I had my son MY way at 10 am (with my 3 older kids playing happily with a nurse in the playroom and by my side minutes afterwards) and walk out of the hospital at 5 in the afternoon, with the blessings and support of the staff.

The hospital is in Ekenas and is a UNICEF designated baby friendly hospital. The practice is midwife-run. I was thinking that you might want to contact them and see if they know of anyone who assisted homebirths. Perhaps you'll get some useful info about how to find what you are lloking for.

Good luck! We spent two summers in Ekenas and loved every sun-drenched second of them. Must be pretty cold and dark there now, though!

[ursusarctos]

Wow, that sounds great! Congratulations on what sounds like was a wonderful birth!
It sounds to me like you might have actually given birth at the freestanding birth center that used to be in Ekenäs (Tammisaari in Finnish, means Oak Island) but that they closed down a year or 2 back due to "lack of funding" I actually read a letter of protest that was posted online where the center used to have its website, so yeah I don't know maybe the midwives that used to work there would be homebirth friendly... The Finnish health care system has been shutting down small local birthing centers for decades now in a move to get all births in large regional hospitals. As most of Finland is rural, this is a problem, but nobody seems to be listening to reason. I mean, how on earth is driving 3 hours to your nearest hospital in bad weather (which is most of the year here) safer than giving birth at home or at a small midwife-run birthing center??? And they're putting it all in "cost effectiveness" terms, which is BS as a hospital birth with a whole team of specialists around is much more expensive than a midwife birth... : But anyway, thanks for your input... I'll have to check into that, maybe it was actually a hospital after all and it's still there and my rant was uncalled for

[LessTraveledBy]

Tammisaari is a hospital (no other types in Finland for giving birth) and it has not been closed down... although there seems to be effort towards that every year.

[ursusarctos]

OMG! I was so sure I had read somewhere that it was a birthing center and they had closed it as part of the continuous move to centralize birth into large hospitals... Thank you so much Anumaria for letting me know otherwise! I live close to there so would be eligible to give birth there if and when I needed to...

[Fluga]

I remember reading some statistic that there were like 10 home births in here in 2007. It's a crying shame.

[ursusarctos]

It is a crying shame, Fluga! Especially since there are so many trained midwives! Now why don't I know where I should look to find one to come to my birth, now that I need one?

[LessTraveledBy]

This is the organization you should e-mail: http://www.aktiivinensynnytys.fi/

If they don't have the contact information of the midwives, no one will. If you don't find help there, please pm me. I do know of a private person who could give you the names of 3 midwives who have done hb's.

[ursusarctos]

Anumaria, I will PM you.