Births rise across Finland as Hämeenlinna sees more deliveries
Tuesday 3rd November 2026 on 20:15 in
Finland
Live births are increasing in Finland, and deliveries at the maternity hospital in Hämeenlinna were up 8% in the first nine months of the year, Yle reports.
Statistics Finland’s preliminary data show that the number of live births rose by nearly 6% from a year earlier between January and August. The increase follows a 4.8% rise in 2025, when nearly 46,000 children were born in Finland, according to the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare’s birth register.
Statistics Finland expects the upward trend to continue this year. Anna Heino, a chief specialist at the institute, said she hopes the positive development will last, though there are no guarantees. The reasons for the increase are not known precisely, she said.
The Kanta-Häme maternity hospital recorded 8% more births between January and September than during the same period last year. The figures include mothers from both the Kanta-Häme wellbeing services county and elsewhere. The hospital was seeing around 20 to 25 babies born each week, assistant head nurse Veera Karhu said. The number of births passed 1,000 in late October.
There were 147 births at the hospital to mothers from outside the region between January and September, up 3.5% on the same period last year. One attraction is the new Ahvenisto Hospital, known as Assi. Hospital services moved there from the former central hospital in March.
Miia Peltola, who lives in Hyvinkää, chose Hämeenlinna for her second birth. Her first child was born prematurely, and she suspected her second might also arrive early. She chose a hospital with its own intensive care and observation unit for newborns. Hyvinkää does not have an intensive care unit, she said, so she would otherwise have had to go to Helsinki.
Karhu said the hospital also offers in-person preparation sessions and visits so expectant parents can become familiar with its facilities and services. Some mothers from outside Kanta-Häme have also come to the hospital when their local maternity units were busy. Summer is now among the busiest periods for births, she said.