diff --git a/docs/index.rst b/docs/index.rst
index fdc6e50..769ae35 100644
--- a/docs/index.rst
+++ b/docs/index.rst
@@ -43,10 +43,11 @@ but has a database instance associate to it::
         author = couchdb.StringProperty()
         content = couchdb.StringProperty()
 
-The extension make use of two configuration variables, but only
+The extension make use of three configuration variables, but only
 ``COUCHDB_DATABASE`` is required. The database will be created if it does
-not already exists. The other configuration variable is ``COUCHDB_SERVER``,
-which sets the server to connect to.
+not already exists. Two other configuration variables are ``COUCHDB_SERVER``,
+which sets the server to connect to, and ``COUCHDB_KEEPALIVE``, which sets
+the least amount of connection that will be kept open.
 
 Defining Views
 --------------
diff --git a/flaskext/couchdbkit.py b/flaskext/couchdbkit.py
index dcdfa94..ffe3f8e 100644
--- a/flaskext/couchdbkit.py
+++ b/flaskext/couchdbkit.py
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 import couchdbkit
 from flask import current_app
 from couchdbkit import Server
+from restkit import SimplePool
 from couchdbkit.loaders import FileSystemDocsLoader
 
 
@@ -40,9 +41,13 @@ class CouchDBKit(object):
     def __init__(self, app):
         app.config.setdefault('COUCHDB_SERVER', 'http://localhost:5984/')
         app.config.setdefault('COUCHDB_DATABASE', None)
+        app.config.setdefault('COUCHDB_KEEPALIVE', 2)
+        
+        pool = SimplePool(keepalive=app.config.get('COUCHDB_KEEPALIVE'))
+        server = Server(app.config.get('COUCHDB_SERVER'), pool_instance=pool)
         
         self.app = app
-        self.server = Server(app.config.get('COUCHDB_SERVER'))
+        self.server = server
         
         _include_couchdbkit(self)
         self.init_db()