Today marks a milestone. It is the beginning of my maternity leave as well as the last session of my hospital's antenatal program. It is always so hectic the day before one leaves on a long hiatus - a wrap up meeting with my boss in the morning followed by a frantic round of emails and goodbyes.
Most of you are probably curious about the process of birthing in Finland. For starters, I was offered the Katilöopisto Sairaala (literally "Midwife Institute Hospital") by our local Neuvola (health clinic where I go for my checkups). I just went along with it because I heard that it was nice :) Anyway. I have been really impressed with the prenatal program offered by the hospital. There were 2 sessions. On the first session, the midwife covered the basics - when to call the hospital, pain relief methods, delivery positions and a tour of the family and delivery rooms. For the second session, it was about taking care of the newborn (changing the diapers, soothing a colicky baby). And finally, it was a 1-on-1 discussion with a midwife concerning the birth plan.
Why was I impressed? well, it's really pro-family and about choices. I mean, if someone wants to go natural for pain relief, there's the water tub for relaxation and something that I've never heard or read before, using saline water to create blisters on the back's acupressure point. Interesting! Hmm, not sure about having blisters though... The payoff for that 15s of burning pain is supposedly 2hr of pain relief.
One can request for a family room where DH can stay for the night (& help with the diapers!) with a double bed, attached bathroom, armchair, crib & changing table. It's got a warm homey feel to it - pastel coloured wallpapers and wall-mounted lamps. The birthing room feels equally homey. The only 'hospital' feel to the room is the adjustable bed and the knobs and plugs in the wall (1 for the happy gas, I suppose). Other than that, there's a low double bed on the floor for laboring in comfort or for DH who needs a nap (kidding), attached bathroom and depending on luck, a birthing pool.
Onto the birthing options. Choices range from the usual inclined bed to the less conventional birthing stools, birthing pools, squats and going on all fours doggie-style. I guess, whatever the labouring mum thinks is the best way to get the baby out, man!
As said, we just had our personal birth plan drawn up with a midwife. I thought it'd only cover the obligatory preferred pain relief methods and birthing positions but no, the first question we were asked was what was our perception/attitude towards docs, nurses & hospitals. Other questions that followed were - what were the dad's fears? how much experience do we have with newborns? (i.e. how much advice do we need from the midwives?), what food allergies do we have? Very progressive.
~ M with a mild heat rash
34 weeks 5 days
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