Midwives and Maternity Hospital

Our health care visits started this morning with a lecture about the training and work of midwives in family planning, reproductive education, and pre- and postnatal care. Our host at the Midwifery program of Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia, Ms. Sirkka Pietilainen, ftold us about the multiple roles of midwives in various aspects of Finns' family and reproductive life. In fact, in Finland, much like in Sweden, pre- (or antenatal, as they call it here) and postnatal care as well as labor and delivery are performed by nurse midwives. In fact, OBs are involved only in case of complications or high risk pregnancies.

After our lecture, we continued to the Katiloopisto Maternity Hospital (located in the same building as the Polytechnic), where we were given a tour of the "birth ward" and the neonatal ICU. After having learned that twin births are not particularly common in the hospital, we happened upon three sets of them within half an hour (!). The nurses in our group, Rachel and Janiel, had some excellent questions to ask to help us compare how babies are born in the U.S. and Finland. I am sure our hosts also learned something new from those discussions.

The afternoon was spent shopping for souvenirs and resting. Tomorrow we will learn more about family life and policy and take a look at some important public health projects in Finland.