Welcome to the website of Kevyt- Association of Premature Babies Parents and to discuss in our discussion forums

Kevyt (MLL:n Meilahden yhdistys ry) is an association which is operated by volunteers. Kevyt shares information about prematurity and our goal is to help families to cope in different situations with premature children. We also arrange different kind of events for families with preemie child or children. Feel free to participate in our activities and ask if you have something you'd like to ask us. Please contact us onkevyt@kevyt.net

Current events

Kevyt association arranges different kind of events year-round. We have events for families, children and mothers. Find out more about our popular events fromKevyt Events blog

Support for parents with premature babies

Parents with premature children have many experiences to share with other parents. There is always something new to experience and new things to learn. Kevyt association offers a supportive network which helps you to meet and get to know new people with similar experiences and situations as you. Two different ways to meet other parents with premature children are attending our events and discussing in our discussion forums. We have an English language forum in our discussion forums.

If you feel you're in need for a long-term or personal support*, we have a list of mothers who have offered to help other parents. Please contact us on tuki@kevyt.net or 046-6551 078 on tusdays and thursdays between 18.00 and 20.00 *and tell us what kind of support you would like and we find a suitable person to help you. Feel free to contact us, you don't have to stay alone and feel lonely.

The Board of Kevyt- association in 2009

Discussion forums of Kevyt association

Kevyt association has its own discussion forums. There are separate forums for different situations, for example pregnancy, birth, hospital care, a premature baby at home, twins etc. There are also conversations about older premature kids and school. Most of the
conversations are in Finnish, but we have recently opened a forum in English. There you can discuss about everything that is related to preemie babies and older preemie kids. Feel free to write a message in English in other (Finnish language) forums too, if you can read a bit of Finnish but don't feel comfortable enough to write it

The discussion forums are for registered users only and the users have to introduce themselves before they can attend a conversation. First, after registration you should introduce yourself to the administrations and they will approve your membership for the forums. After that you can introduce yourself in our “esittelyt” –section or in English language forums or both, if you wish to do so.
Welcome to discuss in our forums!

Knowledge about prematurity

Premature birth is the birth of a baby before the standard period of pregnancy is completed. Prematurity is considered to occur when the baby is born sooner than 37 weeks is completed. Premature babies are at greater risk for developing serious health problems
than other babies.

See also Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premature_birth

Parental participation in modern neonatal care
MD, PhD Owe Ewald, Dept. of Neonatalogi, Uppsala University Hospital.
A presentation in Tampere in 2008: pdf http://www.kevyt.net/pankki/Parental_participation_in_modern_neonatal_care_smallfile.pdf and http://www.kevyt.net/pankki/Parental_participation_in_modern_neonatal_care.pdf

Links:
http://www.prematurity.org/
http://kingproductions.com/
http://www.medem.com/medlb/article_detaillb.cfm?article_ID=ZZZQEMYUQ7C&sub_cat=26
http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/PrematureBabies/Premature-Babies.aspx?articleID=7880&categoryID=PI

Become a member of Kevyt association

Kevyt –the association of parents of preemie children
· has founded in 1997
· is a part of The Mannerheim League for Child Welfare (MLL)
· officially the name of the association is MLL:n Meilahden yhdistys ry

We provide
· support for the families with preemie children
· a possibility to meet other families in a similar situation
· a possibility to participate in our activities
· different ways to find information about prematurity

When you become our member, you'll be automatically a member of The Mannerheim League for Child Welfare as well. Our membership fee is 26e per year (2009).
If you wish to become a member, please contact us via e-mail: jasenasiat@kevyt.net

We'll need the following information about you: Your full name, home address and your date of birth. If you wish, you may add your tel.number, e-mail address and occupation as well.

A member of this association gets a lot of benefits, for example the magazine of MLL (Lapsemme, in Finnish unfortunately) and the national benefits of MLL members. We have also some online shops and other companies that provide discounts for our members.
For further information, see http://www.kevyt.net/jasenedut.html

Supportive membership

The association of premature babies parents Kevyt (MLL:n Meilahden yhdistys ry) is the biggest association of premature babies parents in Finland. We have over 400 members from all over Finland. Each preemie child is an individual and a miracle. Every child and family have their own, different backround. Kevyt association supports families with premature children by providing them knowledge about prematurity and opportunities to meet other families in similar situations.
If you or your company choose to become a supportive member of Kevyt association, you can help us in this important job.

The validity of supportive membership is one year. We publish a list of our supporters in our website and in the end of each year in our last episode of our magazine.

A supportive member receives a certificate of honour, MLL Lapsemme -magazine
(4 episodes a year) and a supporter's sticker which can be put wherever the supporter wishes.

Kevyt association decides how to use the money it receives from its supporters. Different ways to use the donations are for example:
· Providing support for families with premature children; for example different events
· Producing and handing out material about prematurity
· Editing a magazine for the members of the association
· Keeping our website and discussion forums going and developing them
· Various donation projects (for example to hospitals or our members)
· Keeping Kevyt shop going and developing it (intake of Kevyt shop supportsour activities)