synnyttävää

Synnyttävä is a Finnish present active participle of the verb synnyttää, meaning to give birth. It is used as an adjective to describe someone who is in the act of giving birth or who is about to do so. The form expresses ongoing action and is most common in medical language, hospital notes, and journalistic writing. In everyday Finnish, people more often use phrases such as a person is “in labor” or describe the situation with expressions like “synnytykseen valmistautuva nainen” (a woman about to give birth) or simply refer to the person as pregnant.

Etymology and form: synnyttävä is formed from the verb stem synnytt- plus the present-active participle suffix -ävä. Like other Finnish adjectives formed with -vä/-vä, it inflects to agree with the noun it describes in case and number (for example synnyttävä, synnyttävän, synnyttävää).

Usage notes: The term does not denote pregnancy alone; it specifically refers to the act of giving birth or the period surrounding it (labor). In many contexts, the more precise or more neutral option is preferred, such as “nainen synnyttää” (the woman is giving birth) or “synnytys” for the event itself. A common noun for the person who gives birth is synnyttäjä; synnyttävä may function attributively, but bare use as a stand-alone noun is unusual.

Related terms include synnytys (birth or delivery), synnyttäjä (the one who gives birth), and raskaus (pregnancy). The word is primarily encountered in formal, clinical, or descriptive writing rather than everyday conversation.