Maddy Hedman and her husband have three children: Victor, Iris and Daisy - and everyone has come to the world in slightly different ways. Two at BB, one at home. One on land, two under water. Victor's son was born in a delivery room nine years ago. When it was time for daughter Iris to come to the world in 2014, Maddy lay in one of the bathtubs at Södra BB in Stockholm, a clinic that is now closed. Lying in warm water helped the painters, says Maddy Hedman.

- The pain relief you get from the warm water you experience as a girl, for example during menstrual pain when you put a warm pillow on your stomach, it usually helps with the pain.

"Just heard the water flow from the tap"

Maddy Hedman had not planned in advance to give birth in the water, but when she fell into the bath she felt almost immediately that she did not want to step up. When the painkillers came, she stopped and Iris was born in the bathtub. Newborn babies have dive reflexes, so the daughter's first breath was taken above the surface. Because it was just a water birth, the midwives were extra present in the room, says Maddy Hedman, and it was something she appreciated when it created security.

- My delivery was absolutely fantastic, much because of the feeling I got when I lay in the warm water. It was quiet and you could only hear the water running from the tap.

Everyday Maddy Hedman works as a doula, but she has not yet been able to assist with a water birth and hopes that it will be released in the near future. The picture is from 2014 when Maddy gave birth to her daughter Iris in a bathtub at BB. Photo: Lina Beu

Born at home in the tub

When she afterwards told about her water birth to friends and acquaintances, she received the most positive reactions - and some questions.

- It was a little innovative. I got a lot of questions, like, "Oh, how did you do with the umbilical cord?", "What if the umbilical cord was too short?", Or "How did you catch the baby?" to me it just felt so obvious. That was where I would give birth to Iris and nowhere else.

Also, daughter Daisy, 2 years old, was born underwater - at home in the Hedman family's own bathtub. Maddy says she would have liked to have given birth in water at the clinic even then, but then there was no BB reception Stockholm that offered water birth. However, that birth was also successful, she says.

- But I was missing the delivery tray from BB, says Maddy Hedman and smiles.