Thanks for the tips Julie - would you mind coming to Sweden and being my doula for the next birth? :-)

Water birth is straight-out forbidden here, which is so strange as Sweden is so progressive in many other ways. They use some old anti-waterbirth research as justification, which means I would need to have a home birth to birthy baby in water - can you please talk me down from my fears - although I've had two relatively easy fast and straight-forward births, I've been concerned about the risks of not being close enough to medical help in an emergency

...I'm not even pregnant yet (nor do I even have my period back after 10.5 months, I'm pretty sure I'll have to stop BFing for 24 hours like I did for my last child). So it's a long way off....

Just putting myself out there
WOW! What an amazing offer! If you were able to take care of the airfare, I absolutely would consider it! I am very comfortable with waterbirth, convinced of its safety and appropriateness. About 90% of the homeborn babies I have been present at the birth for, were born in water (including my own 4th baby).

I have actually travelled to Thailand and the USA to so birth support work before, we call it a "doula holiday".

But even if it is not practically or financially feasible, I would be happy to chat more and help you come to peace with thos ol' fears. Fears are not necessarily a bad thing and are very much a normal part of the journey to birth and to trust. We just got to tame them and befriend them.

Wondering about contacting Waterbirth International to see if they might know of some waterbirth-friendly birth workers in Sweden. There must be some!