BabelKid 4 is Here!

And it's a girl! She arrived on the 5th of February, and is being adored by her sisters.

Number trivia

BK4 is:

Our fourth child and daughter

My third home birth after a Caesarean (hbac)

My second water birth

My first birth in Switzerland

Birth in Switzerland, a multilingual affair

Like many people in the area, my midwife speaks four languages: Swiss German, High German (Hoch Deutsch), French and English. So for the first time, I was able to communicate with my midwife in a native language. 

As it turned out, I found myself saying some things in English during the birth, mantras I learned to help me through labour like "Let my monkey do it" or "My body's not a lemon", or simply invoking the Lord. Both the midwife and the BabelDad seemed surprised that I would speak in English while in the throes of labour.

Maybe instead of asking what languages multilingual women dream in, we should ask them what languages they labour in. We may be surprised by the results!