Thinking about pregnancy?

You can contact a maternity and child health center (neuvola) when you are planning pregnancy, when you have questions or when a doctor recommends it for you.

It would be good if 2 months before you stop contraception, you started taking 0.4mg of folic acid per day because lack of folic acid increases the risk of fetal neural tube defects (NTD). If you have previously given birth to a baby affected by NTD, you have a history of NTD, you have diabetes, you are on epilepsy medication, you smoke or consume alcohol heavily or you are overweight (BMI over 35), please contact the maternity health center when you are planning to get pregnant.

Alcohol consumption and smoking during pregnancy are not recommended.

If you smoke and/or your partner smokes, you are advised to stop smoking before you become pregnant. The maternity health clinic will be able to help you stop smoking.

Before pregnancy, also make sure that any medication you are using is suitable during pregnancy.

Are you pregnant?

When your pregnancy test is positive, contact the public health nurse of your area. There is a callback system to maternity and child health clinics. The phone service works from 8 am to 4 pm. The appointment can be canceled through the service at any time.

Antenatal classes

The maternity health center will provide antenatal classes for families expecting their first child. For more information about antenatal classes contact your child health center.

You can book a visit to a maternity hospital to see what it’s like. For the contact details for the maternity clinic in the Kanta-Häme Central Hospital, see: Maternity Ward– Kanta-Häme Central Hospital (khshp.fi) (website in Finnish).

Recognition of paternity

After the change in paternity law, the paternity of babies whose parents are cohabiting is usually recognised at the maternity health clinic. Ask at your maternity health center for more information about recognition of paternity.

More information on the THL website: Recognition of paternity – thl.fi (website in Finnish).

MORE INFORMATION FROM  INFOFINLAND – WEBSITE:

• The handbook “We’re Having a Baby”(pdf, 1,46 Mt) Finnish | English | Russian | Somali | Sami
• Information on postpartum depression (Äimä ry:) Finnish | Swedish | English | Russian | Estonian | Somali | Arabic | Sami

USEFUL LINKS TO OTHER OFFICIAL ONLINE RESOURCES

• Prenatal screening – A guide for expenctant parents (THL)
• Nutrition (THL)
• Neuvokas perhe
• Sport activity during pregnancy (UKK-Instituutti) website in Finnish
• The Mannerheim League for Child Welfare
• Paternity (The Mannerhein League for Child Welfare) website in Finnish
• Families – kela.fi and Kela for families (Facebook)
• Breastfeeding (imetys.fi)
• Information about pregnancy, births and breastfeeding (naistalo.fi) website in Finnish