Birthing pools

[scortja]

Can anyone advise me on birthing pools? I don't have another midwife appt for ages and ages and I'm starting to worry! Should I hire one or buy a pool in a box? How are they heated? ARE they heated (I hope so!)?

Can I have the pool in my bedroom so if I change my mind I can tranfer to the bed? Can I use the pool upstairs? I can't just sit in the bath, can I?!

Any advice will be very helpful! x

Im not of much help, but my friend has lent me her mini pool in a box and we inflated and filled it up last weekend! If you're under 5'6 the smaller one is amply big enough, i couldnt believe how much room I had in it! (im 5'), and it was sooo lovely and deep!! The one I have isnt heated BUT i think they lose heat really slowly and come with a cover to keep the temp in. AND mw said to me they monitor the temp and just keep emptying/filing it up to keep it at 37*. It took 1.5 hours to fill.
Not sure about having it in your room if its upstairs though saying that I know someone who had one in their flat so I guess thats the same thing? Im sure if you google it youll get some answers.
I cant wait to use mine for the real thing, I think its going to be great! Oh you can sit in your bath, not sure if youll be comfy or not as you wont really be able to have deep enough to get the same effect as a pool. Not sure about delivering in a bath though, but dont see why not to be honest.
I would research into renting one unless you plan on having more children then it would be a worthy investment! You can always use it as a huge paddling pool after!! :)

You need to think about access for filling and emptying, also consider if it did split.

If you get a proper quality pool I really doubt it would split...! They are really well tested. The one I have can hold a 16 stone person sitting on the side as well as you in it. To fill my pool we used a (clean) hose and attached it to the sink, so if you have a long enough hose you can lead it from anywhere. Same with empyting- we have a pump that attaches to the house and pushes the water back out (we will obviously put the other end outside in the drain!). But you do need to strain the pool first before doing that.

Re: the bath, when I was in labour there was no way I could lean backwards or lie on my back and I just wanted to be leaning forwards either straddling a stool or kneeling. So even though I spent 6 hours of my labour in the bathroom there was no way I could have got in the bath (and lain on my back). When I got in the pool I went straight on my knees and leant over the side and stayed in that position to give birth.
So I would say a bath might be all right to relax in very early labour but you might find it's too contricting for later on.

Meant spill rather than split, my mw told me about open that tipped!