About 40 percent of Helsinki children born out of wedlock
Child welfare officials want to simplify procedures for fathers conceding paternity
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About 40 percent of babies in Helsinki are born out of wedlock. Of the 6,180 babies born in the Finnish capital in 2004, 2,500 were to parents who were not married.
The proportion of children born to parents who are not married in Helsinki grew steadily until 2000, when it reached the 40 percent level, where it has stayed since then.
A similar trend can be seen in all of Finland. Helsinki City Urban Facts reports that communities just outside Helsinki have the lowest proportion of children born out of wedlock - about 36 percent.
The main factor behind the trend is the increasing number of couples who live together without being officially married. In one in four families in Helsinki the mother and father are not married, and between 70 and 80 percent of children born out of wedlock in Helsinki are born in such families.
Under current regulations, unmarried fathers are required to declare paternity to a child welfare official, after which he is officially recognised as the father by the local administrative court. More than 2,000 unwed fathers go through the process each year.
Social worker Piia Peltola, the head of the child monitoring group for the Social Affairs Department of the City of Helsinki, has received thousands of paternity declarations during her 23 years with the city. She says that the process is a short one for cohabiting couples. "First we tell them what a paternity declaration means, and what its implications are. Then the father and mother sign two papers. It is a 15-minute process", Peltola explains.
The feeling at the Social Affairs Department is that the process should be simplified for couples living together. However, this would require changes in national legislation.
"It would be good if the declaration of paternity would mean joint custody. In practice, nearly all agree to it, and now it is done as a separate agreement", Peltola says.
She feels that it would be better if it were possible to declare paternity at the local court, which formalises the matter anyway.
Another option would be to allow the father to declare paternity already at the hospital where the child is born. "Such an experiment has been planned for Joensuu."
In Sweden, fathers can declare paternity by mail, if the child in question is not the couple's first. Peltola feels that such an arrangement might work in Finland as well.
"Then social workers would be able to concentrate on helping broken families."
The relationship between the mother and father is not always clear-cut. In such cases, officials need to ask follow-up questions.
"The purpose is to try to find out if a specific man can be the father of the child", Peltola explains.
It is not unusual for a mother to hope sincerely that a specific man would be the father of her child, or for a father, or for a would-be father to declare paternity, even if there are other possible candidates.
A DNA test is also an option, but only before a paternity declaration of paternity has been registered.
In 31 cases lasat year there was disagreement between the parents over the paternity issue, which was then left to the court to decide. In other cases, mothers do not even want to ascertain who their child’s biological father is. There were 139 such cases last year.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 2.5.2006 - TODAY |
 About 40 percent of Helsinki children born out of wedlock
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