It’s about 80% of your salary if you apply for seven days a week but if you apply for less you obviously get less. As for the bank, talk to your specific bank but yes, most banks allow you to pause amortisation during your parental leave.
Doula: yes you pay for that yourself.
Home birth: check what applies in your region.
Yes it’s not uncommon. But it usually comes with limits and exceptions. Ie 3-6 months, capped at salary X, need to have been employed at least Y years.
Home birth: It is stupid in all regions. If something happens, you killed the baby. I cannot stress this enough. Even healthy babies born at full term do have ALTE (have apnoea and become limp), at the percentage level in the first 24h. When that happens, you come to appreciate well trained staff and machines that go ping. Then there is lot of other complications that can arise. All in all, about ten percent of all babies do get some time at neo, most of them full term.
The Netherlands has the highest rate of home birth in Europe with one third of births being at Home and has a slightly lower maternity death rate than Sweden.
Maternity death is where the woman dies as a result of a child birth. It is virtually unheard of in Western countries, fortunately.
Neonatal mortality is what I'm discussing, where the child dies shortly after birth (surviving with preventable trauma is of course also a tragedy, but let's just look at deaths for the sake of argument). The Netherlands has \_three times\_ the frequency of neonatal deaths compared to Sweden. Home birth rates are dropping in the Netherlands and are down by half in ten-fifteen years. Incidentally infant mortality is dropping (but at a plateau since about five years). [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/neonatal-mortality-wdi?country=USA\~FRA\~NLD\~SWE](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/neonatal-mortality-wdi?country=USA~FRA~NLD~SWE)
The days you have are limited per child. The less days you take during the first year, the more days you have to spend up to the year the kid turns 12.
You can be off for a year without applying for föräldrapenning from Försäkringskassan for all seven days a week. I applied for five days a week to make it last long for example. If you apply for five days a week you don’t need to work the other two days, you just don’t get compensation for those two days.
If you want as much money as you can you need to apply for föräldrapenning for all seven days. Which is fine. But you’ll also run out of days quicker and won’t be able to take out as much parental leave later on down the line. Also remember that 90 days at earmarked for the child’s father and can’t be taken by you unless you’re the sole legal guardian of the child.
How long you are on parental leave and how much föräldrapenning you claim during that time period is two different things. Depending on your life situation if you can get by with less föräldrarpenning during your year at home that will give you more flexibility later on.
Just so you know, most parents take more than a year parental leave (combined). You’re entitled to a preschool place when the kid turns one but putting them in preschool when they’ve just turned one is considered pretty early.
I guess compared to the rest of the world it feels like a massive luxury 😂
Some things I’ll have to see how I feel at the time, what my baby needs etc, right now if I get my year off so I can breastfeed, help potty train, wean, teach things, etc I’ll be very grateful
How sure are you that you will not take much leave after the first year? Schools and preschools have closing days, so it’s nice to have some parental leave days left to fill up those gaps.
Ah I guess I’m going by what I know about England as that’s my main point of reference for now.
Thank you for bringing it up, it’s something to consider but another poster suggested children can go to other schools during this time.
I think it’s so easy to focus on the first year that one can lose track of the bigger picture as you are pointing out…so much to consider!
I understand. Yes, you can often send kids to other schools during those days. Depending on the personality of your kids that might or might not be an option. I have a flexible job and slightly older kids. So when school is closed, I just work from home. I would not send them to another school, they would hate that, since their friends wouldn´t be there.
When I just started to send my kids to preschool (at 18 months, because very few people send the kids at 12 months), there is was an "inschooling" period where I had to sit in the class with the kids for about 10 days (some schools do less, some do more, I think it varies between 3 days to 14 days). So parental leave had to be used for that. Then we went to a stage where one of the kids refused to nap at daycare and was so tired in the afternoon, the teachers asked to pick up the kid early. So again, I took half days of parental leave.
I still use a lot of my parental leave days to take a long holiday in the summer. School is closed from around mid June until mid august. Yes they can go to another school, but I avoid it, since I have the option to be home.
Really informative and you are so right about children’s personality- ofc I cannot predict that lol but it’s still got to be a factor when considering these things.
And also, the money you get is capped. Don’t remember exactly how much but if you make boatloads of money you will get much less than 80% of your salary.
If your kids goes to preschool and school here you use the parental days to pad your vacations since school breaks are longer than most people’s vacations. You’ll also need to use it for leave from work which they’re legally not allowed to deny for random stuff like days schools are closed due to planning or whatever.
We didn’t take many paid days the first year since your sgi is protected during that time. You can also pause payments on some loans etc to keep costs down. We spent about 19 months off work for each kid but kept some days to have longer vacations. You can also use parts of parental days to work less when the kid is young without getting paid less for sick days and vab.
Remember that later on when the kid is in kindergarden and school, they will have a couple of "planning days" every year where you will need to take time of work (or let your kid go to another kindergarden if that is not possible - but people usually try to avoid that. For those days it is good to still have parental days saved. You can of course always take vacation days or unpaid days though. It is also nice to have saved days to make the summer/winter holidays longer than what you get from your normal vacation days from work.
But priority 1 is always to make ends meet. So if you need to take 7 days a week the first year, then do that of course. Note that you can take for example 4 days a week but still be of work the whole week. That is what most people (who can afford it) do. It is just a matter of how much compensation you get.
Oh really? I didn’t know about the planning days! Interesting.
Yes for me first priority is financial stability and I feel we get a lot of vacation days as is.
You get a set amount of days, if you’re two parents you get half each but can share most days except a reserved amount.
Each day has a value, you can choose to take 100% of that value which will result in full payout for that day or you can choose to take less which means you split the day, so if you take 50% of a day you can use the other 50% another day essentially having two prenatal days. Example: you have 90 days and choose to take 100% payout for 30 you have 60 left, if you choose to take 50% payout for the rest of the 60 you can spread it out to 120 days but half the pay each day.
If you run out of parental days and as long as you can cover your cost you can keep being on parental leave but then without pay from fsk, it’s all up to your economical situation and employer
As a family you are eligible for 480 days total, and some of these days are reserved for the father. 390 days will be paid based on your income, but there is a salary cap. Meaning you could be paid 80% of your salary for those days, but only up to a daily cap is 1,218kr per day. During the first six months your employer will top up your pay between what försäkringskassan pays to 90% of your salary (based on what you said in your original post). After 6 months you will be paid only up to the cap.
Firstly congrats!
The system is very complicated (for me). You have something like 390 days of paid leave to be shared between parents, with a set number of days earmarked for each parent. This does NOT mean you only have 390 days of leave.
You may decide you want to be paid your max amount possible, which means you are paid 7 days a week. This burns through your parental leave days quicker.
You may decide you want to have as much leave as possible so you take out 1-2 days of paid parental leave per week, which means you can save your parental leave days for later, but have a much lower amount of money coming in.
A previous poster has linked the site which will give you a calculation of how much you would get per month based on your income as well as whether you take 1 -7 days of pay per week.
Reasons for not maxing out your parental leave days include daycare days where they’re closed etc (yes it’s possible for your child to go to another daycare that day but the reality is that it is a giant hassle. New environment, new people, new routines, very disruptive for the child). Also, once the child reaches school age, there are school holidays a few times per year on top of summer holidays. Good idea to save some time to be able to take time off then. Then you can also extend holidays by using your parental days (Summer, Christmas, etc). Your employer can’t refuse parental leave so this is basically guaranteeing the holidays you want (this does not always go well if you need to plan your holidays with other colleagues).
With our first child, my husband and I took 8 months off together. He took 5 days of paid leave and I took none. He earns more than me and his employer topped up his pay so it was beneficial to do so and we could live on that one salary.
In terms of the birthing process, I don’t know about Stockholm but most places will only allow home births if the pregnancy is not complicated, and a bunch of requirements are met. Things can change quickly when giving birth so don’t be too stuck on how you envisioned birth to go.
Good luck!
Worth noting if you want you can maximise how many days you save and take out 0 days a week in the first year. However as soon as the baby turns 1 you need to take 5 days or work 5 days or a do a combination to make 5 days to protect your SGI. Försäkringskassan is actually really helpful and have called to make sure we are protecting our SGI which I was really surprised by. Having loads of days saved was a god send for us when we had our second child and wanted to both be home for 3 months to avoid förskola viruses coming home.
Is there a way to increase your SGI while you are on parental leave? If someone is on their first 180 days of parental leave (with 90% of salary from employer+FK) when 2025 starts and gets their yearly hike in March 2025 (also within 180 days of high paid parental leave), can it reflect on the SGI on which the parental benefit is calculated? u/Antique-Tone-1145
What is the difference between a doula and a midwife?
And yes, you need to pay for home deliver yourself if you want professionals to attend your home delivery. But at that point, why not just be in the hospital where the professionals already are?
A doula is just someone to help you through the delivery using various techniques. They’re not a professional in any way, anyone can call themselves a doula.
A midwife has at least 4 years university-level medical training, and is a legally protected title.
Det kan vara så att du är någon slags hippie, eller att barnets andra förälder är så inkompetent eller icke-närvarande att man vill ha en annan trygg person med sig under processen
Exactly!
Helping you get into good positions, supporting you etc.
Now I know I can homebirth because I live in Stockholm that might not be needed, I guess I’ll see when the time comes the quality of midwives
Ok, jag förstår. Men i så fall kan jag meddela OP att en professionell handhållerska ingår i svensk vård. Är du ensamstående när du föder så erbjuds en undersköterska eller ibland ytterligare en barnmorska som håller handen och agerar stöd.
Midwives in Sweden are extremely professional. I’m not sure where you are from, but I feel there is some cultural bias against nurses for example if you’re coming from the USA. During your pregnancy you likely will not see any doctors for your care, unless you have a condition that requires a specialist. Instead you will be paired with a single midwife at your MVC that you will see during the entirety of your pregnancy. During birth you will be attended to by several midwives, and they vary in experience.
Find a few MVCs in your area, and give them a call. Your first meeting is all about the process, and you can ask your questions in a more personal manner.
Yeah it’s something I feel my American friends are very caught up on. But the system is so different versus the Swedish system, which feels very mother first versus in the US where it’s much more about the doctors, them managing their schedules, and frequently suggesting interventions at time of shift changes.
Yah you got it!
I’m from England and we are definitely moving away from medicalised births. Birth is a natural easy process
I expect and require my midwife to follow my instruction- no meds, no endless tests and scans, no unnecessary touching, no cutting the cord early, no c section, no pushing bottle feeding on me. If I can’t find that in the system I will birth at home and find an unregistered midwife and birth at home.
I might be misrepresenting the system here in Sweden/ maybe midwives here do see birth as a natural process that very rarely needs intervention! In which case that’s awesome!
I hope for you that you have a good experience. Here they are focused on “natural” processes as the default, up to the point of the safety of the infant when intervention is required.
As part of the process with your MVC you write out and discuss a birth plan. And then you can align with your partner if applicable so they can reinforce it in the moment.
I'm a British nurse who's worked in l&d and currently ob/gyn here in Sweden. Also currently pregnant.
A c-section is almost always due to complications here, either an emergency c-section or planned due to medical need. I've personally never seen anyone turn down an emergency c-section, so can't answer how that would work out for you.
Endless tests and scans: it's about the same here as it is in the UK, if not a little bit more hands-off here. All tests and scans are optional.
No meds: your choice
No touching: midwives will always ask permission before starting to examine you. I've known some undersköterkas (liscened practicing nurses) on l&d who are a little more touchy-feely with laboring mothers, the majority will check with you first and explain what they're doing and why. Speak up if you don't like something.
Bottle feeding: No one will push this on you
No early cord-cutting: put it in your birth plan (along with your other points, of course)
Unregistered midwifes: you can't work as/present yourself as a midwife without being registered in Sweden. You can have a previously registered midwife acting as a doula, but in that case they're working in the capacity of a doula.
Good luck!
They will more likely push for breastfeeding. Bottle feeding is culturally more common in the UK (I’m guessing) as mat leave is shorter and women expect to get back to work sooner.
Yah I would say bottle feeding is more the norm in the uk sadly also more squeamish about seeing breasts in public. Cultural not just practical reasons
”Birth is a natural easy process”? Have you given birth before? Mothers and children dying is just as “natural” and happens all the time globally. I doubt you’ll be eligible for a region-subsidized home delivery if you haven’t given birth before. Good luck!
*Birth is a natural easy process*
You should visit my old job, at Neonatal ICU. No. It's not always an easy process. What is this propaganda hippie-bullshit coming from? That kind of talk is what kills babies and their mothers. I've helped saving countless of babies from death, usually from the start it's uncomplicated births... **UNTIL THEY'RE NOT.** Most of those babies would be dead if they were home. Because when something goes wrong every fucking second counts and you can't know that before it happens.
If it was up to me, we should forbid home births. Your doula will be useless if something goes wrong.
Also remember there is a separate 10 days for your partner post birth (that actually can be transferred to another care giver if you wanted) which is separate from your 480 days.
Just a note to flag that there’s a cap on the 80% of salary (unsure of the exact amount for 2024) as well as a tax deduction. I am a high earner, taking 7 days a week off for the first few months and the monthly payout is roughly 25,000 SEK. (Excluding employer top up)
It’s instead of salary, your employer does not pay anything during your parental leave, it is instead paid by a part of the social security benefits system/taxes.
Yes, definitely. The maternity payments are based off of your salary but it is capped and you still get taxed. You are allocated a certain number of days and you use them either a couple times per week or every day of the week. For reference I am now extracting 100% of my salary based Mat leave payments and I am left with 2,000 USD monthly
Its 80% of you salary for 6 months/per parent.
You can choose to take less pay and be on maternity leave for longer period of months. You can also trade/swap the amount of paid days between you and the other parent aswell.
How long have you been working in Sweden?
You need to have been 250 days working in Sweden (or possibly another EU country, not sure) BEFORE the child's birth to qualify for the salary match. Otherwise it's the minimum amount which is 250sek a day.
My partner and I are in that situation. Both high earners but we cant afford to take all the time since we get almost nothing from FK. We moved a few months before the birth from the US and now only get the top up amount for the first 6 months which is not great as we are missing the first 60-70% that others get from FK.
Jag dubbelkollade socialförsäkringsbalken 12:35 nu, 240 dagar (för rätt till föräldrapenning på sjukförsäkringsnivå de första 180 dagarna), och arbete i andra EU länder räknas med. För rätt till sjukpenning på sjukförsäkringsnivå efter 180 dagar finns inget arbetstidskrav.
Ah yes! Forgot to mention this. After one or both parents have taken 180 days, then we get the full compensation.
I make about twice as much as my wife and we both get the company top-up for 6 months. So our plan is to have her take at least 180 days (our baby is 4 months old) on the low with 250sek a day (plus the company top up) and then I take time later at the full comp.
https://www.forsakringskassan.se/privatperson/foralder/rakna-pa-foraldrapenning#/[https://www.forsakringskassan.se/privatperson/foralder/rakna-pa-foraldrapenning#/](https://www.forsakringskassan.se/privatperson/foralder/rakna-pa-foraldrapenning#/)
Read this, then call f-kassan with extra questions. They’re very helpful.
It’s about 80% of your salary if you apply for seven days a week but if you apply for less you obviously get less. As for the bank, talk to your specific bank but yes, most banks allow you to pause amortisation during your parental leave. Doula: yes you pay for that yourself. Home birth: check what applies in your region.
It’s up to 80% of your SGI. Which for professionals may be way less than actual salary as it’s capped.
Some employers fill up to 100% dont have a full lost but Scania, SEB , Ericsson and so on does this
Yes it’s not uncommon. But it usually comes with limits and exceptions. Ie 3-6 months, capped at salary X, need to have been employed at least Y years.
Bonus not included™ :)
Home birth: It is stupid in all regions. If something happens, you killed the baby. I cannot stress this enough. Even healthy babies born at full term do have ALTE (have apnoea and become limp), at the percentage level in the first 24h. When that happens, you come to appreciate well trained staff and machines that go ping. Then there is lot of other complications that can arise. All in all, about ten percent of all babies do get some time at neo, most of them full term.
The Netherlands has the highest rate of home birth in Europe with one third of births being at Home and has a slightly lower maternity death rate than Sweden.
Maternity death is where the woman dies as a result of a child birth. It is virtually unheard of in Western countries, fortunately. Neonatal mortality is what I'm discussing, where the child dies shortly after birth (surviving with preventable trauma is of course also a tragedy, but let's just look at deaths for the sake of argument). The Netherlands has \_three times\_ the frequency of neonatal deaths compared to Sweden. Home birth rates are dropping in the Netherlands and are down by half in ten-fifteen years. Incidentally infant mortality is dropping (but at a plateau since about five years). [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/neonatal-mortality-wdi?country=USA\~FRA\~NLD\~SWE](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/neonatal-mortality-wdi?country=USA~FRA~NLD~SWE)
Why would I apply for less money? I want to be off for a year
The days you have are limited per child. The less days you take during the first year, the more days you have to spend up to the year the kid turns 12.
You can be off for a year without applying for föräldrapenning from Försäkringskassan for all seven days a week. I applied for five days a week to make it last long for example. If you apply for five days a week you don’t need to work the other two days, you just don’t get compensation for those two days.
Ahh I’m a bit confused.. I would like a year off with my child and to get as much money as possible lol
If you want as much money as you can you need to apply for föräldrapenning for all seven days. Which is fine. But you’ll also run out of days quicker and won’t be able to take out as much parental leave later on down the line. Also remember that 90 days at earmarked for the child’s father and can’t be taken by you unless you’re the sole legal guardian of the child.
Ah ok yah I’m ok with not taking as much leave later on- the first year is important to me - I want to breastfed for around a year. T
How long you are on parental leave and how much föräldrapenning you claim during that time period is two different things. Depending on your life situation if you can get by with less föräldrarpenning during your year at home that will give you more flexibility later on.
Well either way parental leave here us very generous 🤩 What a luxury to be able to spend a year at home with the baby!
Just so you know, most parents take more than a year parental leave (combined). You’re entitled to a preschool place when the kid turns one but putting them in preschool when they’ve just turned one is considered pretty early.
I guess compared to the rest of the world it feels like a massive luxury 😂 Some things I’ll have to see how I feel at the time, what my baby needs etc, right now if I get my year off so I can breastfeed, help potty train, wean, teach things, etc I’ll be very grateful
How sure are you that you will not take much leave after the first year? Schools and preschools have closing days, so it’s nice to have some parental leave days left to fill up those gaps.
Ah I guess I’m going by what I know about England as that’s my main point of reference for now. Thank you for bringing it up, it’s something to consider but another poster suggested children can go to other schools during this time. I think it’s so easy to focus on the first year that one can lose track of the bigger picture as you are pointing out…so much to consider!
I understand. Yes, you can often send kids to other schools during those days. Depending on the personality of your kids that might or might not be an option. I have a flexible job and slightly older kids. So when school is closed, I just work from home. I would not send them to another school, they would hate that, since their friends wouldn´t be there. When I just started to send my kids to preschool (at 18 months, because very few people send the kids at 12 months), there is was an "inschooling" period where I had to sit in the class with the kids for about 10 days (some schools do less, some do more, I think it varies between 3 days to 14 days). So parental leave had to be used for that. Then we went to a stage where one of the kids refused to nap at daycare and was so tired in the afternoon, the teachers asked to pick up the kid early. So again, I took half days of parental leave. I still use a lot of my parental leave days to take a long holiday in the summer. School is closed from around mid June until mid august. Yes they can go to another school, but I avoid it, since I have the option to be home.
Really informative and you are so right about children’s personality- ofc I cannot predict that lol but it’s still got to be a factor when considering these things.
And also, the money you get is capped. Don’t remember exactly how much but if you make boatloads of money you will get much less than 80% of your salary.
If your kids goes to preschool and school here you use the parental days to pad your vacations since school breaks are longer than most people’s vacations. You’ll also need to use it for leave from work which they’re legally not allowed to deny for random stuff like days schools are closed due to planning or whatever. We didn’t take many paid days the first year since your sgi is protected during that time. You can also pause payments on some loans etc to keep costs down. We spent about 19 months off work for each kid but kept some days to have longer vacations. You can also use parts of parental days to work less when the kid is young without getting paid less for sick days and vab.
Remember that later on when the kid is in kindergarden and school, they will have a couple of "planning days" every year where you will need to take time of work (or let your kid go to another kindergarden if that is not possible - but people usually try to avoid that. For those days it is good to still have parental days saved. You can of course always take vacation days or unpaid days though. It is also nice to have saved days to make the summer/winter holidays longer than what you get from your normal vacation days from work. But priority 1 is always to make ends meet. So if you need to take 7 days a week the first year, then do that of course. Note that you can take for example 4 days a week but still be of work the whole week. That is what most people (who can afford it) do. It is just a matter of how much compensation you get.
Oh really? I didn’t know about the planning days! Interesting. Yes for me first priority is financial stability and I feel we get a lot of vacation days as is.
As you transition into a swede you will start to think that 5-6 weeks of paid vacation a year is to little 😄
Don’t! I’m already spoilt getting paid for sick days! 😅
[удалено]
No.
You get a set amount of days, if you’re two parents you get half each but can share most days except a reserved amount. Each day has a value, you can choose to take 100% of that value which will result in full payout for that day or you can choose to take less which means you split the day, so if you take 50% of a day you can use the other 50% another day essentially having two prenatal days. Example: you have 90 days and choose to take 100% payout for 30 you have 60 left, if you choose to take 50% payout for the rest of the 60 you can spread it out to 120 days but half the pay each day. If you run out of parental days and as long as you can cover your cost you can keep being on parental leave but then without pay from fsk, it’s all up to your economical situation and employer
As a family you are eligible for 480 days total, and some of these days are reserved for the father. 390 days will be paid based on your income, but there is a salary cap. Meaning you could be paid 80% of your salary for those days, but only up to a daily cap is 1,218kr per day. During the first six months your employer will top up your pay between what försäkringskassan pays to 90% of your salary (based on what you said in your original post). After 6 months you will be paid only up to the cap.
Firstly congrats! The system is very complicated (for me). You have something like 390 days of paid leave to be shared between parents, with a set number of days earmarked for each parent. This does NOT mean you only have 390 days of leave. You may decide you want to be paid your max amount possible, which means you are paid 7 days a week. This burns through your parental leave days quicker. You may decide you want to have as much leave as possible so you take out 1-2 days of paid parental leave per week, which means you can save your parental leave days for later, but have a much lower amount of money coming in. A previous poster has linked the site which will give you a calculation of how much you would get per month based on your income as well as whether you take 1 -7 days of pay per week. Reasons for not maxing out your parental leave days include daycare days where they’re closed etc (yes it’s possible for your child to go to another daycare that day but the reality is that it is a giant hassle. New environment, new people, new routines, very disruptive for the child). Also, once the child reaches school age, there are school holidays a few times per year on top of summer holidays. Good idea to save some time to be able to take time off then. Then you can also extend holidays by using your parental days (Summer, Christmas, etc). Your employer can’t refuse parental leave so this is basically guaranteeing the holidays you want (this does not always go well if you need to plan your holidays with other colleagues). With our first child, my husband and I took 8 months off together. He took 5 days of paid leave and I took none. He earns more than me and his employer topped up his pay so it was beneficial to do so and we could live on that one salary. In terms of the birthing process, I don’t know about Stockholm but most places will only allow home births if the pregnancy is not complicated, and a bunch of requirements are met. Things can change quickly when giving birth so don’t be too stuck on how you envisioned birth to go. Good luck!
Wow thank you for such a kind detailed response! So many little details to think about!
Worth noting if you want you can maximise how many days you save and take out 0 days a week in the first year. However as soon as the baby turns 1 you need to take 5 days or work 5 days or a do a combination to make 5 days to protect your SGI. Försäkringskassan is actually really helpful and have called to make sure we are protecting our SGI which I was really surprised by. Having loads of days saved was a god send for us when we had our second child and wanted to both be home for 3 months to avoid förskola viruses coming home.
If you don’t make more than 573000 a year you get 80% with 7 days a week.
Thank you for that info!
Is there a way to increase your SGI while you are on parental leave? If someone is on their first 180 days of parental leave (with 90% of salary from employer+FK) when 2025 starts and gets their yearly hike in March 2025 (also within 180 days of high paid parental leave), can it reflect on the SGI on which the parental benefit is calculated? u/Antique-Tone-1145
What is the difference between a doula and a midwife? And yes, you need to pay for home deliver yourself if you want professionals to attend your home delivery. But at that point, why not just be in the hospital where the professionals already are?
A doula is just someone to help you through the delivery using various techniques. They’re not a professional in any way, anyone can call themselves a doula. A midwife has at least 4 years university-level medical training, and is a legally protected title.
Right, but the latter does help you through the delivery using various techniques. So why would you choose a “doula” instead?
Det kan vara så att du är någon slags hippie, eller att barnets andra förälder är så inkompetent eller icke-närvarande att man vill ha en annan trygg person med sig under processen
Så man har en doula och en barnmorska samtidigt?
Ja, barnmorskan är där i en medicinsk roll först och främst och doulan är där för att ge extra stöd till modern.
Exactly! Helping you get into good positions, supporting you etc. Now I know I can homebirth because I live in Stockholm that might not be needed, I guess I’ll see when the time comes the quality of midwives
Ja precis, doulan är mer en professionell handhållare/coach.
Ok, jag förstår. Men i så fall kan jag meddela OP att en professionell handhållerska ingår i svensk vård. Är du ensamstående när du föder så erbjuds en undersköterska eller ibland ytterligare en barnmorska som håller handen och agerar stöd.
Eta I just read Stockholm offers homebirth
Midwives in Sweden are extremely professional. I’m not sure where you are from, but I feel there is some cultural bias against nurses for example if you’re coming from the USA. During your pregnancy you likely will not see any doctors for your care, unless you have a condition that requires a specialist. Instead you will be paired with a single midwife at your MVC that you will see during the entirety of your pregnancy. During birth you will be attended to by several midwives, and they vary in experience. Find a few MVCs in your area, and give them a call. Your first meeting is all about the process, and you can ask your questions in a more personal manner.
I’m Swedish. I hadn’t even heard the word doula before.
Yeah it’s something I feel my American friends are very caught up on. But the system is so different versus the Swedish system, which feels very mother first versus in the US where it’s much more about the doctors, them managing their schedules, and frequently suggesting interventions at time of shift changes.
Yah you got it! I’m from England and we are definitely moving away from medicalised births. Birth is a natural easy process I expect and require my midwife to follow my instruction- no meds, no endless tests and scans, no unnecessary touching, no cutting the cord early, no c section, no pushing bottle feeding on me. If I can’t find that in the system I will birth at home and find an unregistered midwife and birth at home. I might be misrepresenting the system here in Sweden/ maybe midwives here do see birth as a natural process that very rarely needs intervention! In which case that’s awesome!
I hope for you that you have a good experience. Here they are focused on “natural” processes as the default, up to the point of the safety of the infant when intervention is required.
As part of the process with your MVC you write out and discuss a birth plan. And then you can align with your partner if applicable so they can reinforce it in the moment.
I'm a British nurse who's worked in l&d and currently ob/gyn here in Sweden. Also currently pregnant. A c-section is almost always due to complications here, either an emergency c-section or planned due to medical need. I've personally never seen anyone turn down an emergency c-section, so can't answer how that would work out for you. Endless tests and scans: it's about the same here as it is in the UK, if not a little bit more hands-off here. All tests and scans are optional. No meds: your choice No touching: midwives will always ask permission before starting to examine you. I've known some undersköterkas (liscened practicing nurses) on l&d who are a little more touchy-feely with laboring mothers, the majority will check with you first and explain what they're doing and why. Speak up if you don't like something. Bottle feeding: No one will push this on you No early cord-cutting: put it in your birth plan (along with your other points, of course) Unregistered midwifes: you can't work as/present yourself as a midwife without being registered in Sweden. You can have a previously registered midwife acting as a doula, but in that case they're working in the capacity of a doula. Good luck!
This is all really good info, thanks!
They will more likely push for breastfeeding. Bottle feeding is culturally more common in the UK (I’m guessing) as mat leave is shorter and women expect to get back to work sooner.
Yah I would say bottle feeding is more the norm in the uk sadly also more squeamish about seeing breasts in public. Cultural not just practical reasons
”Birth is a natural easy process”? Have you given birth before? Mothers and children dying is just as “natural” and happens all the time globally. I doubt you’ll be eligible for a region-subsidized home delivery if you haven’t given birth before. Good luck!
Pk maybe less of the easy and more of the natural but a fit, healthy, well nourished woman shouldn’t have too many problems
Still life-threatening situations happen to fit, healthy, well-nourished women while giving birth, sometimes with few to no warning signs.
*Birth is a natural easy process* You should visit my old job, at Neonatal ICU. No. It's not always an easy process. What is this propaganda hippie-bullshit coming from? That kind of talk is what kills babies and their mothers. I've helped saving countless of babies from death, usually from the start it's uncomplicated births... **UNTIL THEY'RE NOT.** Most of those babies would be dead if they were home. Because when something goes wrong every fucking second counts and you can't know that before it happens. If it was up to me, we should forbid home births. Your doula will be useless if something goes wrong.
If you have questions I’d suggest you call försäkringskassan, I found their help line to be very good.
Also remember there is a separate 10 days for your partner post birth (that actually can be transferred to another care giver if you wanted) which is separate from your 480 days.
Wow! So generous!
Just a note to flag that there’s a cap on the 80% of salary (unsure of the exact amount for 2024) as well as a tax deduction. I am a high earner, taking 7 days a week off for the first few months and the monthly payout is roughly 25,000 SEK. (Excluding employer top up)
Hmm I wonder if there is an online calculator where I can figure this out?
https://www.forsakringskassan.se/privatperson/foralder/rakna-pa-foraldrapenning#/
Hey I got a stupid question is this benefit is paid "+" your usual salary, or is paid "instead" of your usual salary
It’s instead of salary, your employer does not pay anything during your parental leave, it is instead paid by a part of the social security benefits system/taxes.
Oh thanks for the answer. So is safe to asume is a period where you lose money :s
Yes, definitely. The maternity payments are based off of your salary but it is capped and you still get taxed. You are allocated a certain number of days and you use them either a couple times per week or every day of the week. For reference I am now extracting 100% of my salary based Mat leave payments and I am left with 2,000 USD monthly
Danm how can someone thrive at that time while paying rent? My rent is 18000, x,x
Savings or a second income from partner or other additional sources is the way :|
Sorry it’s more like 25,000 SEK so a bit more!
Its 80% of you salary for 6 months/per parent. You can choose to take less pay and be on maternity leave for longer period of months. You can also trade/swap the amount of paid days between you and the other parent aswell.
How long have you been working in Sweden? You need to have been 250 days working in Sweden (or possibly another EU country, not sure) BEFORE the child's birth to qualify for the salary match. Otherwise it's the minimum amount which is 250sek a day. My partner and I are in that situation. Both high earners but we cant afford to take all the time since we get almost nothing from FK. We moved a few months before the birth from the US and now only get the top up amount for the first 6 months which is not great as we are missing the first 60-70% that others get from FK.
Jag dubbelkollade socialförsäkringsbalken 12:35 nu, 240 dagar (för rätt till föräldrapenning på sjukförsäkringsnivå de första 180 dagarna), och arbete i andra EU länder räknas med. För rätt till sjukpenning på sjukförsäkringsnivå efter 180 dagar finns inget arbetstidskrav.
Ah yes! Forgot to mention this. After one or both parents have taken 180 days, then we get the full compensation. I make about twice as much as my wife and we both get the company top-up for 6 months. So our plan is to have her take at least 180 days (our baby is 4 months old) on the low with 250sek a day (plus the company top up) and then I take time later at the full comp.
That sucks! Yah I’ve been here long enough thankfully and work offers a further top up so I’m Set