The birth

As promised - the story of Alice's birth
Alice was born on October 14, 2005. She was due on the 13th, but we really didn't think she would be on time...

She was born at home, on our living room floor. No, we hadn't quite planned on a home birth, but we had arranged for it to be possible: we had a midwife there who was supposed to support us at home first, and then come with us to the clinic as a doula. We really, really wanted to have some one with us whom we knew, and who would be with us the whole time. The Swedish system doesn't quite support this, so we arrenged for it ourselves. But then in the end we decided to stay at home.

Things went pretty slow at first, at 10 pm on October 13th I started to feel regular contractions and we knew pretty much right away that this was it. We went for a walk, we came back home and Johan lighted at least a hundred candles. I took a shower (the first of many), and the contractions just kept coming, steady but often. From the beginning until Alice was born there were no breaks longer than 5 minutes. At around midnight we called Anita, our midwife, and she came around 4 in the morning. And told us that we still had a looooong way to go. In the morning Anita went to work, and we promised to call her when we noted any changes.

But then in the end it went really fast, and Anita just barely made it back before the final fase. So when we were ready to go to the clinic I just didn't want to get in a car. I didn't want to have to meet any other people, or have to get dressed. I felt like I was in control just where I was, and I was afraid to lose that positive flow in the midst of everything. And since our midwife was there and had all the equipment she needed we didn't need to go.

At home
So at 2.18 pm Alice came to us, pretty as an angel, with all that black hair, and a look in her eyes like she had it all figured out (later we have of course realised that she does indeed have it all figured out, we can't wait for her to learn how to speak so she can tell us).

It was really a marvellous experience, and I felt very safe all the time. I think deep down inside I really wanted a home birth from the beginning, so it was perfect. All in all it took a little more than 16 hours from when I first realised that it had started. Sure, it was painful, but I felt like I was in control all of the time, thanks to the breathing techniques we had learned, and Johan's massage and pep talks, and the great support and coaching we got from our midwife.

Hospital
Unfortunately, we still had to go in to hospital two days later. Alice wasn't eating as she should, and when we tried to wake her to feed her she just didn't react at all. Later, at the childrens hospital, we found out that her blood sugar was really, really low, so she was almost in a coma, so it was a good thing we went. Anyways, we stayed at the hospital for two days, where they helped us feed her with a bottle and get her energy up so that she would eat. All other tests they took showed that she is perfectly healthy, which was good to know.

But it's funny, a lot of the people we met at the hospital (and later) looked at us like we were completely out of our minds and totaly crazy, when we said Alice was born at home. Some people have even said: is that allowed? Like there's a law to say where people can give birht to their kids? I think next time, if we are blessed with another child, we will have a planned homebirth, that is planned from the beginning. Because, in the end, I wouldn't want to change anything about Alice's birth.