pregnancy in norway

Hi, I am currently pregnant in Norway.

my experience....hmm...if you are a healthy person, you might find your checkup very bare minimal.  But if you are in the "high risk" category, then they do monitor you very closely.

another thing to note is Norwegian doctors or hospitals are very OLD SCHOOL.  they do not believe a lot of drugs or treatments that other countries might perform on pregnant ladies.

For example, if you have bleeding in your first trimester, in Singapore (my country), the first thing gynae do is they will scan and give you hormone injection to stabilize.  here in norway, they wait it out because if miscarriage do happen, they think that there is nothing you can do.  All they can tell you is "go back home and relax...if miscarriage did happen, then please check yourself into the hospital.".

In Singapore, Gynae doctor is our first point of contact.  In Norway, fastlege (GP) and mid wife are our first point of contact.  Gynae only comes in when there is complications.  Each has its own role and responsibilities which was initially very CONFUSING to me.

Let me know if you need more information.

How many months you been pregnant now? I am 4 months on the way.Thanks a lot. I have done with my doctor and midwife check up too. I am just waiting for my ultrasound next week. Exactly, our first contact is OB gyne same in the Philippines. By the way, where can you buy baby stuff which are not so expensive? Thanks a lot.

sol368 wrote:

How many months you been pregnant now? I am 4 months on the way.Thanks a lot. I have done with my doctor and midwife check up too. I am just waiting for my ultrasound next week. Exactly, our first contact is OB gyne same in the Philippines. By the way, where can you buy baby stuff which are not so expensive? Thanks a lot.

I am in 6 months plus.

I bought most of my baby stuffs (breast pump etc) in Singapore.  I also have stuff that are given to me by my friends and colleagues but mostly clothes.  If you go to www.finn.no, you can also find free or reduced price furnitures like cot or strollers.  For us, we kept a list of "must have" items for winter baby and then we keep track of discount in the shops.for example, now, there are lots of discount on winter stuff and we starting buying them.  For winter things like wool, it is best to buy them in Norway because other countries' wool are insufficient.

Note that there is a shop called "Baby Shop".  If you registered yourself as member, your first purchase of regular-price items are subjected to 10% discount.  We make sure that we do that for those items that are almost NEVER having discount, example Bugaboo stroller.  Lately Barnehus has a lot of discount on baby monitor....so we bought one which save us 800kr.

we also buy baby stuffs from Sweden.  I have friends in US & UK who travel to Oslo a lot.so I can buy stuff in amazon and they help me to bring them over to Oslo.  I am blessed.  :-)

There is a facebook group of international mothers where they help each other with baby related or pregnancy related issues but this forum does not allow me to promote other social platform.   This facebook group is EXTREMELY HELPFUL. In that group, they also form a "buy & sell " group where people can buy discounted used clothes, toys and baby furnitures from each other.  Sometimes things are free.  Example, a mother may sell a set of 100 pieces of baby girl clothes for only 300kr because her baby has outgrown it.

Baby grows very fast in the first few months so it is not practical to buy new clothes for them.  Plus based on my Chinese Asian culture, we believe that it is a blessing for new babies to wear clothes of another healthy baby.

hi, thanks for the info and tips. It will be a great help. Congratulations also.

Hi!
Welcome to Norway! You can check out this page to guide you through lots of info on being pregnant in Norway, BUT it is in Norwegian so you'll have to use Google Translate if you don't speak Norwegian.

oslomamma.net/gravid.html.

The website exists in English, but not the pregnancy part:

en.oslomamma.net/.


Good luck!
Best,
Elisabeth

Hi fornight, have you tried buying baby clothes in Amazon? How would you rate the quality and price? Your idea will be a great help. Thanks a lot.

sol368 wrote:

Hi fornight, have you tried buying baby clothes in Amazon? How would you rate the quality and price? Your idea will be a great help. Thanks a lot.

Hi, so far, I only buy maternity clothes from amazon.uk.  as for baby clothes, not so much.  I have a lot of "hands me down" baby clothes from my friends.

Hi fornight, thanks a lot.

Hei,
Has anyone experienced giving birth in Norway? Can you share it? Thanks a lot.

Hi,

I just gave birth in Oslo three weeks ago.  What do you wish to know specifically?

hi,
How about your experienced in sykehus?  What are the things to do after the baby is born? Mother or baby's check up i mean? Is the father have to pay the board and lodging there? In case how much per day? Thanks a lot. Congratulations!

You get to stay for free, but if the father wants to stay With you then he has to pay for himself.

Hei
I am currently 24 weeks pregnant and have been living between Norway and England for a little while but from now on I'll be staying in Norway with my Norwegian husband. Had my first visit to Norwegian midwife yesterday, seems very similar to England although I have been told gas and air isn't used during labour , need to find out more about what pain relief is actually available on my next visit I think.
Anna

We have this thing called lystgass, but only available in some hospital, there's also epidural which is a good choice (you can even have the epidural and have the lystgass while giving birth) and then there's water birth not much of a pain reliever as people say..

Diva-Anna wrote:

Hei
I am currently 24 weeks pregnant and have been living between Norway and England for a little while but from now on I'll be staying in Norway with my Norwegian husband. Had my first visit to Norwegian midwife yesterday, seems very similar to England although I have been told gas and air isn't used during labour , need to find out more about what pain relief is actually available on my next visit I think.
Anna

Only certain hospitals are allowed to use laughing gas due to ventilation issue.

as for pain relief, I had epidural but they only allow it when i was dilated to 4cm.  before 4cm, they will only use suppository pain relief or oral pain relief pills.

sol368 wrote:

hi,
How about your experienced in sykehus?  What are the things to do after the baby is born? Mother or baby's check up i mean? Is the father have to pay the board and lodging there? In case how much per day? Thanks a lot. Congratulations!

I chose to give birth in Akershus hospital and the experience has been positive.  I know a lot of people like to give birth in Ulleval but in reality it is based on your luck whether you get good midwives or not.  There are three shifts in the hospital, thus depending on how long you stay in the hospital, you get attended by different midwives. 

I was in the hospital for two days before I gave birth due to induction.  I encountered 5 different midwives and only one of them was kind of unfriendly and bossy.  The rest of them are really nice and patient.

things to do after baby born - the helsestajsion will take over the monitoring and vaccination of the baby if your baby is healthy.  As for the mother, the GP will follow up but the nurse from the helsestajsion will also help to answer any question that the mother.  You can ask about anything.  some helsestajsions will organize support group sessions, not all do.  You need to ask and find out.

I am not quite sure about how much the father needs to pay.  Note that before your labor, if you are admitted to the barsel ward, father is not allowed to stay there.  Father can only be there between 8am to 10pm.  Only when you are in labor already, then father is allowed to be there with you during labor period.

after delivery, if you have ok delivery with  no complications, then you might be send to "maternity hotell".  It is there that father can stay with you all day long and need to pay if he wants to eat.  their food is not anything amazing....your husband might want to drive out to buy his own food.  I got my husband to drive out to get me macdonalds!!!

Thank you so much. It is a great help. Congratulations again!