Home birth in sweden
YouTube video: Home birth in Sweden.
In Sweden birth at home is quite rare. It is estimated that around 180 births in 2020 were planned home births (this out of an estimated 113 000 births in total in the country that same year). A planned home birth is a birth that was planned to take place in the home with a midwife present. This is not to be confused with unassisted home births that is a birth that takes place at home without any medical personnel present. Most births in Sweden do still take place in hospitals, and I will soon explain more on why this is.
In most locations in Sweden you will have to finance the home birth yourself, opposed to hospital birth that is subsidized by the government. The only places the government will finance home birth is in Stockholm and Umeå (as far as I know). It may also be difficult to find a midwife to attend your home birth if you live far from a bigger city.
The cost of a home birth varies, but the estimated price is between 20-30 000kr. Some home midwives work together, so that two midwives are present at birth, others work on their own. There are also some places where midwives have started teams that work together supporting birthing couples at home. This is a way to ensure that the parents to be will get to know whoever will attend their birth, but then the midwives don't have to be on call all the time and can instead take turns.
If you would like to give birth at home the first thing you should do is find out if there are any home birth midwives in your area. A great resource is födahemma.se, where you can find out more about home birth as well as find a list of the home birth midwives that practice in different areas.
As home birth midwives are self employed in most cases they may have different criteria for which kinds of births they attend at home. But generally they attend births of people that have had a healthy pregnancy and are expected to have a healthy birth.
What about the risks? This is always a question that arises when speaking about home birth in Sweden. It's still seen as something a bit crazy and some even see it as irresponsible. But there are a lot of benefits to giving birth at home, for an example you get to know the midwife or midwives during pregnancy, they get to know you and your family and also find out more about what is important to you, etc. When you give birth at home you have the benefit of not having to leave your home, not having to worry about getting sent home or the hospital staff being too busy to take care of you, and you don't have to follow hospital protocols.
What research has shown when it comes to giving birth at home with a midwife present is that it's just as safe and in some cases safer for a person who has given birth vaginally before, has a healthy pregnancy and expected to have a healthy birth. The midwives are equipped to handle the most common complications and are usually very experienced midwives.
Some worry about pain relief as there is no medical pain relief option at a home birth. But there are non medical options like massage, TNS, acupressure or acupuncture and most commonly used bath or shower.
The families that choose home birth have usually made a very conscious and informed choice when it comes to giving birth at home. If you are considering a home birth I suggest you start reading up on it to figure out if it's right for you. Watch a few home births videos here on youtube, there a lots!
If you have any questions about home birth leave a comment below! I currently attend home births with the Föda i Skåne team.
