Home Birth

Together with Midwife Agneta Bergenheim I do a project about home birth. Agneta has worked with home deliveries for over 20 years. She is one of about 20 midwives in Sweden that helps women give birth at home. I previously study midwifery but chose to stop my education because I found it hard to relate to the standard procedures of childbirth in the hospital. All women are treated according to routine programs instead of to ensure each individual's unique circumstances and needs. Agneta and I decided that we would start to work together to increase knowledge and awareness of home births. Research shows that if the pregnancy is normal and the woman is healthy with no risk factors, it is fewer interventions to give birth at home. Agneta asked me to join a home birth so I could get a picture and see the difference of how it is to give birth at home versus in hospital. The first woman we met would give birth to her fifth child at home. She was positive about our project. At birth, her husband, the first four children and a friend attended. I was amazed at how the kids took the birth in the living room completely natural. It was beautiful to witness. I have chosen to photograph the couples I have met directly after their children come into the world. There is a sensitivity in us after great events that we can not hide. We drop the mask and stand naked. A documentation of the fundamentals of being human. The portraits are photographed analog with a medium format camera.