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

Hi,

I bought the La Bassine from Made In Water £50 - Beautiful pool, very comfy and intimate.

I had a great experience and will recommend waterbirth to anyone.

For those looking for heated pool, My friend had her baby in the gentle water pool and highly recommends Fiona from aquabirth .

Thanks Cath, for putting this post up for me to read. I managed to join this board as you can see
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Hi I am Jenny, tangerinecath friend and currently 14 weeks pregnant with my first baby. EDD 12th August 06 I have been dating my partner for ten years and we got married in November 05, in fact this is our honeymoon baby. The hospital midwife said we don?t get many of those these days.

We live in Sheffield with our eight cats and yes we are keeping all of our cats, I just have my husband on litter tray duty whilst I?m pregnant. I am sure with careful supervision our baby will grow up to love cats or if nothing else ?Cat? must be an early word !!!

I would prefer to have a home birth with a water pool and I have been looking at different options. We don?t have a downstairs toilet so we will have to buy/hire a chemical toilet or commode.

We have put in a new combi boiler recently so we have endless hot water so filling up a pool will not be a problem.

We can not use an Inflatable Pool
I can not get an inflatable pool as we have eight cats in our home. Although the cats are relatively well behaved, I do not want to be drowning the wooden living room floor with water mid-labour if a cat decides to test out how thick the plastic pool liner is !!!

Suggestions for rigid heated filter pools Aqua Birth Gentlewater Suggestions for rigid unheated pools with no filter
Splashdown
Active Birth Pool

Mmm, it doesn?t sound like anyone had any problems with either type of pool which is great news. I might have a word with my midwife and see if she has a preference.

Thanks for the suggestions and if anyone knows of any other water pool companies could they post them for me to compare with the above ones

I've had 3 home water labours with the last 2 ending in water births.
The first pool was from the Active Birth Centre in London. It was an oval rigid one - fantastic size and enough volume to almost float through the contactions. Not cheap but worth it! Lived in an old tenement flat and the floor supported the weight without any probs.
New house, new baby! 2nd time round I hired one from my local AIMS group - rigid but not as big - so not able to get the same floating sensation but it did the business all the same! Much cheaper than anywhere else - payment was a donation plus the cost of the disposible liner.
Another house, yet another baby! Last time round thought I'd go for the floaty thing again and hired one from Splashdown. Not quite as big as the first pool but far more expensive than the second.
All considered I would recommend the Active Birth Centre oval pool but it obviouly depends on the height and weight of the individual [smile}
Friend had an inflatable pool last time and it punctured while she was labouring so she had to get out. A rare occurance I'm sure but something to consider.

Last time round I didn't have a combi boiler but the electric immerser did the job without too much complaing.

Enjoy the experience whatever the final choice! x

I used The Good Birth Company, www.thegoodbirth.co.uk and hired a rigid sided pool for my first birth (at home and fantastic, husband in water with me and he brought our dd to the surface, as he says he delivered her!) and it was so amazing that it is set up for my next child due in a couple of weeks.

Like others I had heard that heating & filtration systems can be unhygenic so didn't opt for that.

It took 2 hrs to fill, in it for just over 3hrs and the midwives topped up with boiled water as needed - worked perfectly, as hopefully it will next time round.

Oh comes with a padding for under your knees, but I added some blankets under the liner for extra comfort.

I used a birthpoolinabox for my water birth at home four weeks ago... I would definitely recommend - it was really comfy, loads of room (I am just over six foot tall, so this was an issue for me with some of the other pools). It was easy to inflate, and although we don't have a combi boiler DH managed to fill it fairly quickly with our hot water tank and lots of pots and pans on the stove (my labour was only five hours in total, so time was of the essence!).

Also, helpful people on the phone and really quick delivery from them . Am looking forward to paddling in it this summer!!

HTH, Chloe

a lot of talk over the inflatables lol, why do people prefer the birth pool in a box compared to la bassine?

Another recommendation from me for the BPIAB. We have a good combi boiler though.

And also recomend a commode to have near the pool. No need to have a chemical toilet - if it starts smelling just get a birth companion to empty it! I had one like this, though I must admit we got it off freecycle rather than buying it new!