Giving Birth in Finland – Our Delivery Experience in Rovaniemi Hospital

Hello everyone. We are so excited and blessed to have this time to share with you the happiest moment of our life as a new mom and as a new dad. We were given the opportunity to visit the labor ward way ahead of our delivery time. On Saturdays you can always visit in order for you to familiarize yourself with the labor ward in the Central Hospital or the Keskusta Sirelas. I was given the freedom to move around and try all kinds of positions according to my comfort and I was blessed to be guided all the entire process by my midwife. I was given the option to choose all kinds of pain relief options and for me I chose the local pain relief medicine called Apodendal Nerve Block. There are options such as spinal anesthesia, epidural and laughing gas and I was also using a few times of the laughing gas. The doctor also came a few times to check on me and my baby assessing the heart rate and also giving me the local pain relief. I had a normal delivery and free of cost. As I remember in India no visitors or families were allowed during the process of delivery but I was blessed and I was really thankful that I got to let my husband stay beside me throughout the entire delivery process and my husband was able to have the honor of the cord cutting. You can go with your sister so you can use the baby's belly. We heard our first baby cry and it was the most happiest day of my life as I heard him cry and all the pain that I have it vanished into a thin layer. We are sharing some of the picture after the delivery. There she is. She's tired, not sleeping well and here is the boss. Look at the boss. When we first came here we thought oh we need to bring so many things but actually I don't even still use the gown, the dress that I bought for myself because the hospital have change of dress and first of all we were in the observation room when I was having my contractions. Then when it become like six centimeters dilation then we shifted to the labor room and after I labor this is the recovery room. So this is like a shared bedroom for two individual mothers but since there's no one here they are kind enough to give us as a family room and so I packed my maternity bag so much but then more than what I thought I didn't need it that much. The baby doesn't also need that much because the hospital encourages the skin-to-skin contact. The kangaroo mother can like more with the father and the mother so till now the baby is not wearing any clothes. He's just wrapped with the baby one set of clothes and for me they use a hospital sleeper, hospital dress and towel and also diaper for me and pads in the washroom and over here. So I didn't hardly have to use any of the things that I packed except for my hairbrush, hair dryer and then they also give me a pair of toothbrush but I prefer to use my own and there was also toothpaste here but we prefer to use our own and also in the washrooms there's only soap so the thing that was necessary was to bring your own toiletries like shampoo. They even have lotion here but if you are a person who likes to use your own things then you remember to bring your own toiletries and if at all if you forget you still survive because in each part room there are bathing soaps and in the recovery room there are lotions so yeah and for the baby they have diapers here as long as you are recommended to stay here there are like stores of diapers and they will teach you how to choose diapers if you are first time parents like us and well it's just there for the baby. They give you there is like a string of socks and they make all the new parents to choose a pair of like woolen mittens or socks or hats over there in the wall and we also had a chance to go with our midwife to mark the date where the baby was born and other children. There were five children who were born on the same day. Along with us there were like four. We were four on May the 17th and so it was really special. I was really grateful for my midwife because she really was a good nurse and today is our third day night I know in the hospital. First night I was alone and the baby was with me. She was my my nurse took care of my baby. It was my family who were around the hood so my husband had to go home and then yesterday so the bed was empty and they it became a family room that was exactly like this. So these are the diapers for the babies and these are these are the waterproof pads for changing diapers and these are some of the first aid which is needed for for the baby and then these are some of the clothes and where you can use it for the baby if in case if you want to put on some of the clothes like these are the pants and so we do have the jumpsuit and all those stuff and and these are the gloves and all those stuff and we have here the lotions the baby oil and this is the time for food. Morning breakfast is from 7 30 to 9 o'clock then comes lunch from 11 30 to 12 45. Then you have a midday like a coffee and snacks which is from 1 30 to 2. Then you come for dinner is from 4 30 to 5 45. Then you have before bed a meal which is 7 30. So all these meals are brought in the dining hall. So there we go and pick it up and if you want to eat in the dining hall you can eat otherwise you can just bring to your own room. So this is how we take it and she can have the food. So this is the food is only available for the mothers. So no if you if you are coming with the mother so you'll have to have your own food you have to buy from out or you have to buy from inside so you don't get a free food from here. This one this is the share room but it becomes like a private room for us because the other patients had left yesterday but actually if you they always give preference to people who live far away from the city. We live very close we just like three kilometers we live away from the hospital. So and usually the family rooms which has the bed it has also have like they have their own fridge the armchairs. So it's like a kind of a small bedroom which can the mother can feed you so we don't have our own bathroom here just because this is like a shared recovery room so we have to go out for the bathroom. So and this is the table for changing the diaper. Yeah so yeah yeah that's it and yeah so we do have even this white sheets over here which we can use for cleaning the baby vomiting the poops the pee the body and all those stuff so you use this. And if you need a help you just press the call bell then nurses will just come to your room and you can just ask any help that you want you don't have to hesitate to ask any help they comes at the moment they help you whatever situation you go there they're always so. The gap the tiny interval between feedings because it depends on each baby's weight and health and they also teach us how to wash the baby's body and so many other things so they're okay and see you on the next one.