Welcome Paivi
Sounds pretty much like Finland and Australia have more in common than
we think
Andrea Quanchi
On 18/08/2005, at 5:58 AM, Päivi wrote:
Hi everyone!
A short introduction of myself: I am a mother of two / a maternity
store owner / a childbirth educator and a natural birth activist from
Finland. I have been reading Andrea Robertson's books and diary for a
while and got a lot of help from her company in organising a new
consept of childbirth preparation in Finland. Now I decided to follow
this list for a while.
In Finland childbirth is pretty medicalized, even though it is the
midwives providing the care ( in doctor's supervision). I have now
started a 7 week program for mothers and farthers to be, trying to
educate them about the normal physiology of birth and the enermous
inner strength and ability, that they have within their bodies. I am
working together with couple of midwifes. Natural Childbirth is
considered very "hippy" over here and is very very rare. Mothers don't
generally feel a need for any preparation and the trust for the health
care system is great. The first group, that I just finished a moth ago
was a succes, some of the fathers especially said how sceptical they
were to attend this course, but everyone was extremely happy in the
end and felt sorry for all others, that were not attending. I think I
have started something great, and hopefully it will grow into
something big and the happy moms and dads will spread the word and
more and more parents will find out about their options for a better
birth. I am also educating all my sales people in the store about
natural childbirth and breastfeeding, so they can even give advise in
the store if the subject comes up with the moms.
The discussion about the induction and the doctor going away for a
holiday got me thinking how bad we really have things over here... In
Finland you do your prenatal visits at the "neuvola", where the nurse
will see you until your birth. Some of the nurses have no practical
knowlege of pregnancy and birth and quite often give unaccurate
information for moms. But the "neuvola" service is well respected, and
if they advice to start bottlefeeding for example, there is no reason
to doubt this... We don't have a single Birthing Centre here, and
homebirth is almost nonexistent (only ab.10-30 births a year). No
expences are covered for a homebirth and it is hard to find a midwife
for the job. The maternity hospital, which is considered closest to
the midwifery model of care has ARM 32%, oxytocin 53%, episiotomy 14%,
epidural 25%. So, the moms, that I am trying to educate don't really
have a lot of choice here. They choose between couple of very similar
hospitals, that's about how much they can do. When the labor starts,
they will go to the hospital, and which ever midwife will be on shift
will care for them. Often they will be cared by 3-4 midwifes until the
baby is born. Sometimes it feels almost unfair to educate and train
these moms for a natural birth, when you know what is waiting for them
in the hospital. I am dreaming of opening a birth centre here in the
future.
Paivi
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