Anyone had a water birth at home?

[tangerinecath]

My friend is 13 weeks pg with her first and is planning a water birth at home. She has been overwhelmed with info from companies that rent out pools and doesn't know which type to go with. Is there anyone out there who had a water birth at home or rented a pool for hospital? What type of pool did you go for and what did you think of it?

I understand there are two basic types, one that you fill beforehand that has a filter and another that you fill when you need it.

Recommendations of companies that rent out pools would also be appreciated.

TIA

I rented an inflatable. It was fab.

Oh I one that was inflatable. It is a over sized paddling pool IYSWIM. Try here It was fab! I didn't get to give birth in it as the midwives weren't qualified / trained for water births, but they let me use it for pain relief and boy did it work!

You get everything you will need. Its all yours to keep afterward too! Our kids have the poshest pool on the block in summer! (They have changed the pool design slighty since I got mine, but if anything it looks better now!)

HPH

We rented an oval, rigid sided one from Splashdown which was great. It was quite big but I am tall and felt I would need the space to stretch out. As it happens, I would probably have been fine with a smaller one.

We assembled it a couple of weeks before I was due - it would have taken too long to do it if we had waited until I was in labour. Started filling it when labour started and that was plenty of time.

I hired one from Gentlewater with rigid sides. I think which pool very much depends on your circumstances.

I had a curious toddler and as I tend to have fast labours didn't want to have to wait for a pook to fill/heat up. The lockable cover therefore was an essential along with being able to have the pool filled, heated and ready.

If you have a good plentiful supply of hot water and can fill an inflatable pool quickly then they are much cheaper. However I liked the heater with the thermostat as I didn't have to worry about the temperature being right.

I hired one from Gentlewater with rigid sides. I think which pool very much depends on your circumstances.

I had a curious toddler and as I tend to have fast labours didn't want to have to wait for a pook to fill/heat up. The lockable cover therefore was an essential along with being able to have the pool filled, heated and ready.

If you have a good plentiful supply of hot water and can fill an inflatable pool quickly then they are much cheaper. However I liked the heater with the thermostat as I didn't have to worry about the temperature being right.

Hasn't SoupDragon just had a waterbirth at home?

Thanks ladies.

Bump for the daytime crew.

I had a water birth at home last June. Was my first baby. Had I known would probably have gone for general anaesthetic!

Was a great experience though. I hired an oval pool from splashdown with rigid sides. I needed those sides Their service was really good, although I did get lost in the middle of the ashdown forest on a baking hot day at 38 weeks pg trying to find the agent. Found a lovely farm shop though.

Sorry - slightly off topic there...

I did hear that pools with heaters are less hygienic, but not sure whether that's true at all. We filled the pool at midnight and put cover on. Got in at 5am and it was perfect temp. Only needed one refill with some hot before ds arrived at 11am.

active birth centre- think they're the most professional and also pioneered this in the UK. They have a range of pools but none with heater, shouldn't be a problem as long as yr friend has usual heating/plumbing set-up..

Me! Me!

I had a birth pool in a box - fab. nice squidgey bottom and sides to lean on. Apparently the maternity unit at my local hospital has 3 of these to supplement their one "plumbed in" pool. The midwife who delivered DD rates them highly.

Do you have a hot water tank or a combi boiler though...?

Hmmm dunno soupdragon, this request is on behalf of a friend. Will have to find out.

The inflatable pool sounds fab though. Congrats on the recent arrival of your dd! Great name.

I haven't read the thread so sorry if I'm repeating but tell her to get one that you fill up and leave filled - spending hours trying to fill a pool and get it to the right temp is not something you want to be doing while in labour imo! I've had 2 home births, the second with a pool.

I half filled mine with just hot water about 2-3 hours before I eventually needed it , put the cover on and then topped it up to theright depth/temperature. With the heat retentive cover (aka silver bubblewrap!) on, it kept the heat in. Getting it sorted actually helped take my mind of early labour.

A pool will take way more than one tank of water so you nee to factor that into your filling time/pool requirements. I have a combi boiler so had as much hot water ontap when I needed it. Just bucketed out some cold and toppped up with hot as required (although I left ehc cover on, folede oin half, to keep the temp up.

Soupdragon sorry if this is a little gross or personal but what did you do if you needed to go to the loo? My friend is planning to have the pool in the living room downstairs as this is the only room big enough, but the loo is upstairs, do you think this will cause a problem or do the midwives prefer you to have toilet facilities on the same floor? She could probably get the pool in her bedroom at a squeeze but she's not convinced that the floor could take the weight!

cath - we had ours in the living room and tbh it was a huge effort to get out and go to the downstairs loo - really don't think I could have managed to climb stairs.

I know what you mean Bony, I really struggled to walk the few paces to the loo when I had my dd (in hospital). The midwife had to come in and hold my hand!! Poor woman, she was an absolute saint.

My friend is thinking of maybe getting a chemical loo, perhaps this might be a good solution.

This is probably tmi but i know i wont manage the stairs to our loo and have borrowed a commode- chair thing....rank but it set my mind at ease!

I have a huge old bath

can I just use that for pain relief instead of hiring a pool?

i think its just the depth thing - my bath is big and old too but even when full does little to completetly immerse bump.

I need to be able to squat or go on all fours...

Madeinwater - not too pricey seems good...

tangerinecath, I wasn't in mine long enough to need the toilet! I was a good girl and went before I got in. Having said that, we do have a downstairs loo though.

It's not just the depth, it's the width too (snurk). In order to deliver in water, you need to keep the baby under water until they are completely delivered - in order to do this you might need to splay your knees out to lower yourself (as I did) which is impossible in a bath.

The width and length of pool means you can submerge more of yourself which it is impossible to do even in a bath which is deeper.

Oh, and the liner for the BPIAB is fab - we (well not me!) syphoned most of the water out, bundled the remaining small amount and (look away if you're squeamish) "gunk" up in the liner and into a bin bag and shoved it in the dustbin!

i had one like julienetmum (gentlewater/aquabirth - rigid pool with heater and filter etc) and used it two and a half weeks ago! from the same place, and copy her comments; i have fast labours too so wanted it ready-and-waiting (and as it turned out, i needed that!), wanted not to worry about water being right temp and wanted secure cover as also have toddlers. and money is not too tight round here either, so this was perfect choice for me.

and in answer to the 'going to the loo' question; TMI im sure but it being a fast and intense labour and all (1 1/2 hours start to finish) there was no question of getting out to go to the loo. wild horses could not have dragged me out of that pool before i was ready!! and, heres the TMI bit, i did poo in the water bleurrrgghhhh!!! my mum, the mw, was there with a seive to whisk it away though and i never saw it.
so have a seive you never wanna use again, handy!

and Fiona Marshall, the woman who rented to pool to me, was, is, really nice, full of advice if you want it and very accomodating etc. highly recommended.

good luck with whatever she chooses - was a fantastic experience all round (apart from being reminded about the poo( i told them not to tell me if it happened ), i loved it!

I had a Gentlewater pool too - they were great at delivering and picking up. PLus the fact that it had a filter meant that we were in it most nights up to the due date, just getting used to the feeling of it. In the event my husband wasn't allowed in when I actually used it in birth, I was too territorial!

The benefit of the gentlewater pool seems ot be that the temperature can be changed to suit the circumstances. At one point my midwife suggested that he was going to turn down the temperature and apparently I hissed 'leave it alone' at him as I thought it was just right...don't remember that bit, but do remember that it felt lovely getting into the water and that I stopped taking the gas and air after a bit as the two things didn't seem necessary. Mind you it's all a bit of a blur now.

My husband's favourite story is that he saw the baby's head pop out and the eyes opened and looked at him. Now, OK we all know that there's not way the baby actually saw him, but it made a big impression on him at a time when he was exhausted after hours of being soothing and encouraging to me.

I'd definitely have another in the pool.

I rented one originally bought from the Active Birth Centre - frame and padded bottom (you could also add a blanket or two for extra padding) to which you attach a disposable liner. It was fantastic - solid enough for midwife and doctor to sit on the side, while me and my husband were in it - and wonderful pain relief (and I was using it in Belgium where the ONLY (medicinal) pain relief offered is an epidural in hospital).

It does take a while to fill - my midwife was thinking it wouldn't be ready in time since my labour was going pretty quickly - but making your partner get in with you is a very good way of getting the water level up and getting more support.

In fact, I preferred the rented pool to the hard one I had at the hospital for my first child - much more comfortable both for me and my husband (who couldn't get in 1st time round, so did his back in leaning over the side to keep me up above water level!). But I guess having candles instead of fluorescent strip lights also helped.

Like others, didn't have an issue with needing the loo - wasn't in there that long, and my MW also had a seive.

And it was SO nice to be at home afterwards, not in a noisy hospital ward and separated from the rest of the family - my older daughter wandered in when she woke up in the morning to meet her sister!

Good luck!

I also used birthpoolinabox . They were great. Not sure how much people have been paying for their rented inflatables but wherever I looked it seemed cheaper to buy the one from birthpoolinabox than it did to hire one - no hassle with poating things back and I'm looking forward to joining my 2 girls in the pool in the garden this summer now! I also used a rigid sided pool at a birth centre when my first daughter was born and was worried that I wouldn't like the inflatable one as much but in the end I actually preferred it. Much comfier on the knees and leaning on to the side too. Good handles to hold to and plenty of room. Very quick to inflate and not too bad a filling time - 30-40mins. We have a combi boiler and fairly decent water pressure so I guess that helped. My labour was about 5 hours in total and I was in the pool for 2 of those just to give you some idea of timings. We also hired the pump to take the water out and my hubbie was glad we did though it is a bit of extra hassle getting it back to the company. You could try siphoning instead??