Pregnancy

Kristina’s pregnancy with her fourth child links the Nilsson family’s survival in Sweden to the risks of their emigration. During a winter of famine she gives birth to Harald while struggling to feed the newborn and her other children; later, during the Atlantic crossing, her pregnancy compounds the danger of a grave illness. By the time the family reaches America, the unborn child remains alive, a future citizen not yet born.

Birth During Famine

In the middle of the winter, after Kristina had stretched scarce provisions with famine foods, she gave birth to a son, Harald. The family now numbered eight. The meager diet left her without enough milk, while the starved cows’ milk was too bitter for a suckling. She tried to prioritize food for herself so that she could nourish the newborn, but Anna had grown thin, and Kristina felt that feeding one child meant taking food from the others. The pregnancy’s immediate aftermath thus sharpened the household’s scarcity into a conflict between several children’s needs.

The baby’s birth also brought a family and religious disagreement into the household. Kristina wanted her relatives Danjel and Inga-Lena to carry Harald at his baptism, but Nils and Märta objected because Danjel followed Åke Svensson’s teachings and had been excluded from Communion by the dean. Kristina defended her uncle as a kind man who had harmed no one, and believed the dean had treated him unjustly. The child’s arrival therefore fell amid both material hardship and dispute over who could be recognized as a worthy godparent.

A Pregnancy Carried Across the Ocean

The family’s preparations for departure show how the pregnancy sat within a larger burden of household care. Kristina packed clothes, bedding, food for six, and the tools she expected to need, while leaving behind familiar implements that could not be accommodated. The provisions included rye and barley loaves, salted butter, honey, cheese, smoked meat, and salted herring. Their crossing required planning for the whole family, even as Kristina would be traveling while pregnant.

At sea, the family’s dependence on care work became especially visible through Inga-Lena’s illness. Inga-Lena worried about feeding and dressing her children, caring for the baby Eva after her milk had dried up, and keeping the children safe on deck. Kristina saw her as constantly in motion, worn down by service to her husband and children, and urged her to rest. These circumstances do not describe Kristina’s own symptoms, but they place her pregnancy within a voyage where women’s labor and illness could quickly affect the entire household.

Illness and Survival on the Crossing

When Kristina suffered a severe bleeding episode during the voyage, Captain Lorentz learned that she was pregnant as well as ill. He recognized signs of scurvy and feared the consequences for her husband and children if she died. His response reveals the stakes of the pregnancy within the family’s perilous passage: Kristina’s health mattered not only to her but to a household relying on her presence, while the expected child added another life to the danger he saw.

Kristina gradually improved after bleeding during a storm night, but remained too weak to stand. Karl Oskar carried her from the dark, stuffy quarters onto the deck whenever the sun was out, and she gained strength slowly. She worried that she could not help with the work of preparing for landing. The passengers washed and scrubbed the hold, cleaned and mended clothing, and discarded belongings ruined during the long voyage; Karl Oskar took on tasks usually done by women while Kristina recovered. Her pregnancy continued through this period of illness and recovery, rather than ending with the crisis.

Arrival and the Unborn Child

At the landing, Kristina wanted to walk down the gangplank on her own legs, though she leaned heavily on Karl Oskar. She feared that being carried ashore would be a bad omen and insisted on making the descent herself. Their children were pale and gaunt after the crossing, but the unborn child remained protected within her. The narrative marks that child as the first among the Charlotta’s passengers who would gain citizenship in the North American republic, extending the family’s passage into a future generation.

The contrast between the family’s arrival and the voyage’s losses gives the pregnancy its final significance. Of the seventy-eight people who embarked at Karlshamn, seventy reached land; eight had been lost to the ocean. Karl Oskar stood with his family around him, relieved that they had crossed safely, while Kristina’s pregnancy made their arrival both an ending to the passage and the beginning of another life still to come.