in Finland there was a complaint at the end of last year that the clothes in the maternity package are not sold at flea markets. Some of the flea markets does not take packaging products even for sale.
At the same time, many Finns living abroad are even ready to pay extra for a maternity package.
“For me, I felt that motherhood culminated in that package – you only get it if you become a mother. A bit like when I was a high school student, I got a student law,” says the person who lives near Nuremberg in Germany Mine Ritterbusch.
Ritterbusch’s first child was born in the fall of 2018. She hadn’t even had time to think about the maternity package yet, because as soon as the critical weeks were over, a box arrived in the mail – and tears were guaranteed.
“My sister had bought a package from her friend, who had her second child and didn’t want the package. He immediately decided to buy it.”
For Miina Ritterbusch, the gender neutrality of the clothes is important when it comes to maternity clothes. Older daughter in the picture.
In the year 2020 Ritterbusch was expecting her second child.
“It was clear to me that I wanted a package again.”
She began searching the Facebook group for someone who had planned to take her maternity package as cash and would be willing to do her a favor.
“All three mothers were immediately ready to help. Yes, a mother wants to support another mother.”
He paid the amount of money corresponding to the package, the postage to Germany and a couple of tens of labor wages. The price came to about 230 euros.
There are also commercial versions of the maternity kit for sale online. Ritterbusch didn’t want that.
“It was important for me to get exactly the Kela maternity package in which the child can sleep. I wanted the package to also include that particular coverall and sleeping bag, similar to what I had as a child. Mine was brown with spots on it.”
The gender neutrality of the clothes was also important.
“It is difficult to find such in Germany. I have proudly shown Finnish clothes to my friends and told them that they fit everyone.”
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“I’ve proudly shown Finnish clothes to my friends and told them that they fit everyone.”
Miina Ritterbusch’s younger daughter wearing the overalls from the maternity package.
Abroad resident Finns receive “at most a few dozen inquiries” about maternity packages every year, says Kela’s head of international family benefits and maternity allowance Anniina Kuokka.
“The questioners are, for example, grandparents living in Finland, whose family members live abroad, and the grandparents would like to send them a package.”
Kela does not sell maternity packages, as it is a social security benefit based on the law. The maternity allowance can be chosen either as a maternity package or as a tax-free sum of 170 euros.
In order to receive the grant, you must live permanently in Finland.
Persons staying abroad but entitled to Finnish social security, such as posted workers, civil servants, students and their family members entitled to Finnish social security, are also entitled to maternity allowance from Finland, Kuokka points out.
In the year 2019 Jenna Pellikka Pellikka studied abroad, but he was enrolled in Finland. She was therefore entitled to receive a maternity package. In August, the package arrived at Pellika’s address. She forwarded the package to her daughter in North Carolina. The postage was about 70 euros.
Jenna Pellika, who lives in the United States, has two children, Noah Keller and Elsa Keller in her arms.
“The packaging was perfect. It’s a tradition that felt nice. I had always imagined that I would live in Finland and have children in Finland, but it didn’t turn out that way,” says Pellikka.
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“The maternity pack is a tradition that felt nice.”
If Pellikka had not been entitled to the package, he would probably have bought it through an online auction.
Jenna Pellikka received a maternity package in 2019. “Some of the products were nice, but the bright green and orange clothes, for example, went unused because they didn’t match my style,” says Pellikka.
At the time of the photo shoot, 4-month-old Noah Keller and the family’s 6-year-old Rottweiler Urho are relaxing. Noah is wearing a sweatsuit from the maternity pack.
“For the second child, I was no longer entitled to the package and it seemed silly to buy the whole package, so I have bought individual products from Facebook groups.”
The first discovery was the Suomi blankets that were originally in the 2018 maternity pack. Pellika’s mother brought the blankets with her to the United States when she came to visit.
Younger child Elsa Keller in her Suomi 100 themed felt slippers.
Other flea finds have included sleeping toys. To his older child To Noah Keller, 3, Pellikka has ordered another sleeping toy as a backup. The gray bunny from the maternity pack has suffered a bit and is Noah’s favorite. For those born in June For Elsa Keller Pellikka, on the other hand, ordered the sleeping toy bear in the 2022 package.
Pellikka tells her American friends that she admired the idea of the maternity kit.
“On the other hand, there is a baby shower culture here, from which many people get a similar amount of stuff.”
Some of the clothes have been used by both of Jenna Pellika’s children. On the left, the older child Noah’s style sample from spring 2020 and on the right the younger child Elsa’s from 2022.
Foreign Finns maternity packaging is by no means a new phenomenon.
For example, living in London Katja Pesari acquired a maternity kit already in 2013. He got the idea from a Finnish acquaintance.
At that time, the discussion in Facebook groups was not as active as it is today. Instead of Facebook, Pesari hunted for the package in various online discussion groups, such as the expectant mothers’ group at bavä.fi.
“I wrote to the group that if an expectant Finnish mother was considering taking money instead of a package, I would be ready to buy a package if she was willing to send it abroad.”
Pesari also paid the monetary value of the package, the postage and a few tens of labor wages.
“When the package arrived, it was new and exciting. I expected it.”
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“It’s about the Finnish motherhood experience.”
Katja Pesari took pictures of the entire contents of the maternity package as soon as the package arrived in the mail.
Pesari feels that he received worth more than he paid for.
“I think the value of the goods is more than the monetary compensation. But above all, that’s why I wanted the package, because it’s a Finnish institution. It’s wonderful that my child received the same items as Finnish babies born in the same year.”
What is essential for Pesari is precisely the fact that it is Kela’s maternity package and not a commercial equivalent.
“It’s about the Finnish motherhood experience.”
What also made the 2013 package special was that the box was exceptionally beautiful, says Pesari. The design of the package was a fillable family tree.
The prince received the same package William and the duchess Catherinewhose first-born prince George was born in 2013. Very few photos of the royal family’s children are published, but those that were published, unfortunately, did not show the same outfits as Pesari’s child.
The box is still in Pesari’s warehouse. Now it’s full of baby memories.
Katja Pesari’s child Alfred Sansom in the bodysuit of the 2013 maternity package. A matching body has been sent to Prince George.
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