Your birth at BB Gårda

Your birth at BB Gårda

With you all the way!

We offer the same excellent care and setup, whether you’re giving birth to your first baby or have given birth before.

Read below about the 'Family trip' with us.

NOTE! We only have on-site births at BB Gårda in Gothenburg now and are no longer able to offer home births. If you wish to give birth at home, we refer you to BirthRightsSweden's website where there is a list of Sweden's home midwives.

What does your journey with us look like?

In order for us to get to know each other and build a trusting relationship, we need to meet several times before the birth.

Before birth – at least 6 meetings:

MYM, our informational session, which you can attend multiple times, 2 individual consultations, 3 sessions in the "Birth Preparation Course". Read more about the course here.

During birth:

Midwife "on-call" with 24-hour availability for you and guaranteed place from pregnancy week 38+0 to 41+6. You choose which room you want and when you want to come to us during the birth process. You choose when you want our midwife support in the room. At the birth, there are 2 of us in place in place. After the placenta has left, you need to stay for at least 2 hours, then you decide for yourself when you are ready to go home from BB Gårda. If you wish to stay your first night with us, you are warmly welcome to stay.

After the birth:

During the first week, the midwife is available around the clock by phone/text for support and advice.

Day 1: Follow-up on the well-being of mother and baby through a visit at BB Gårda or a phone call.

Days 3-4: Visit at the pediatric clinic for a doctor’s examination, PKU test, etc.; we will schedule the appointment for you.

Day 5: Follow-up phone call where your midwife writes a summary report (epikris) for you to take to the child healthcare center (BVC) if you wish.

About 1 month: Follow-up appointment with the family.

A Truly Unique Birth…

…where you lead, and we follow. Birth with midwives is already traditionally different from what most of the population have come to expect from media images, and stories from family and friends. Care at BB Gårda is centered on supporting low-risk birthing populations - ultimately, you don't need a lot of interventions or interruptions when birth is happening normally!

But we also know birth is unpredictable, requires confidence and support, and can sometimes need the help of a skilled professional. We endeavor to help you have the birth of your dreams, where your intuition is valued, your body can move and be comforted, and you feel safe asking for what you want.

So if you are healthy and have a normal pregnancy, carrying one baby and signed up at the regional health program during pregnancy at your Barnmorskemottagning and you had an ultrasound scan around w20 that was normal. Our midwives require your records from those visit to be able to determine if your pregnancy is proceeding normal.

Our midwives will meet you at the birth center 24-hours a day. Our team will support you through active labor phases, birth, and the early bonding time with your newborn.

How Labor Typically Progresses

Preparing yourself and knowing what stimulates your oxytocin and how the normal process unfolds is important for understanding what happens in your body during labor. This way, you can stay calm, feel safe, and engage in a process that becomes a strengthening experience for life. We work to stimulate oxytocin with dark curtains, tranquility, silence, and no disturbances... Warm water, massage, and closeness. We have water as pain relief, so you can get in the bath or pool whenever you want.

Our approach is that labor unfolds individually. Early labor often takes time, so feel free to load your support team with several people if you wish.

The midwives are “on-call” with 24/7 availability from week 38+0 to 41+6. During this time, we will likely have close contact as it approaches. If you as most women pass 41+0 and extra checks at the hospital might offer from public health care system, we will support your choices. You will continue to follow your basic program at your maternity care center and we will probably meet if you need our support. We know that all babies are sooner or later being born.

You are welcome to BB Gårda when you need our support; we have no rules about how far along you need to be or how many contractions you should have per minute. You decide when you want to arrive; the space is yours. And we midwives will hold it.

The midwives take turns in 12h shifts as the birth goes on. Nothing is rushed.

We also care about ensuring that your support team feels comfortable, so it is relaxed for everyone around. We have a kitchen and living room where support persons can step out to prepare food, rest, and recharge from time to time.

Woman preparing for birth with midwife and child's father

We monitor how the birth progress in several ways. We observe how you, as the birthing person, move, the shape of your belly, the purple line, coldness in your lower legs, and where we hear the fetal tones in the sharpest way, true midwifery skills. We want to listen to the baby's heart from time to time during labor to be able to follow the babys health. We always ask for your consent for any interventions or any medications we may consider giving you or the baby. We discuss all of this in our appointments before the birth. There is always room to change your mind, as it is the birthing person who has all authority over their body and their child.

We perform vaginal examinations if you request them or if we suspect we need more information to understand how the baby is presented if we haven't been able to determine it in other ways so many births proceed without any vaginal exams. Except for the exam of the birth canal after birth to check for tearing.

If your or the baby's strength begins to wane, we will discuss what is needed: rest, food, or extended pain relief at the hospital.

Woman practicing breathing exercises in preparation for birth

We encourage and support the birthing person or their partner to be the first who touches their baby and to catch their baby themselves. We are right there to guide and oversee the process. Afterward, both the baby and the birthing person need time to recover, and we protect those first hours to ensure they are as calm as possible. these hours are often referred to as the Golden Hours, allowing the baby to find its way to the breast on its own. This moment is incredibly important for the bonding between the baby and the family, as well as for the baby's brain development. It’s not just a baby being born; parents are born too.

You deliver the placenta at your own pace to avoid disrupting the normal process. This minimizes the risk of bleeding, but of course, we are here to assist if you wish or if we see a need for support. We are always close by and ready to help.

Then we write a journal and fill in the birth notification and send it to the Swedish Tax Agency so that the child gets his social security number. When you are ready, we will examine your abdomen to see if you may have had any ruptures that need to be stitched. You can get different types of local anesthetic such as gel, injection or, for example, Emla cream, but sometimes a pudendal block in the abdomen can be better before it may need to be stitched.

We do a first medical check of the baby, measuring weight and length. All babies are offered vitamin K.

After we cared for the mother and you have had a bite to eat you really want to go home and snuggle up in your own beds. We recommend staying for at least 2 hours after the placenta has been born but often time flies after birth. When you leave, you might hang a leaf on our large "Tree of Life" in the living room.

During the first day, we will follow up on how you all are doing. Around day 4 after birth you are offered a visit the pediatric clinic for a doctor’s examination, PKU test, hearing test, etc. Then we’ll check on you until your BVC visits your home around days 8-10.

About a month later, we will meet for a final follow-up appointment at BB Gårda.