As an ante-natal course for leaner times, it would have been unusual even in a cash-strapped country, let alone in one whose economy is enjoying its longest period of growth in at least four decades and whose finances are flourishing. Sweden is a nation in surplus and the government has still been raising taxes, with the top marginal rate now reaching 60 percent.

"We have money," said Hanna Hedvall, 45, who lives in Solleftea and worked as a midwife at the maternity facility for six and a half years. "We may not be able to have specialist care across the country, but here we are talking about rather simple things."

Paying some of the world's highest income-tax rates has been the cornerstone of Scandinavia's social contract, with the political consensus in Sweden to save money for when the economy is less healthy. Yet the country is showing strains all too familiar in other parts of Europe with nationalists gaining support and Swedes increasingly questioning the sustainability of their fabled cradle-to-grave welfare system.