NHS warning risk of Legionella from ready heated home birthing pools

[robotnikchair]

www.cas.dh.gov.uk/ViewandAcknowledgment/ViewAlert.aspx?AlertID=102179

Anyone thinking of having a home birth and getting a birthing pool needs to read this. The NHS alert made it into the press when the baby was ill but sadly the infant has subsequently died of Legionella pneumonia

[Fattyfattyyumyum]

Who fills the birthing pool TWO WEEKSahead of labour?!

No risk if pool filled on onset of labour, which is surely what sane people do

[squizita]

Umm yes what Fatty said - this isn't so much a risk with birthing pools themselves as with leaving a pool of water you are going to do a medical procedure in for two fricken weeks full of water.
Who would even do that??

Would they have a bath they'd left stagnating for 2 weeks? Or go in a swimming pool that was untreated for 2 weeks? Let alone have a baby in one.

[moggle]

But it doesn't say it was "stagnating"? They DO provide chemicals to clean the water.
My friend had her birthing pool ready and filled a couple of weeks before as she was suffering so badly with backache and it provided good pain relief for her - she treated it with the provided cleaning / antibac stuff from the company as instructed every day and it had a motorised filter. It sounds like that still wouldn't be enough to prevent this. My friend is a very intelligent scientist (though not biology) so if it wasn't obvious to her I wouldn't say it certainly wouldn't be obvious to everyone...