Hiring pool for home birth

[Natanotherone]

Hello,

With my ds I had a very straight forward birth experience, went to hospital and got the birthing pool (only one at our hospital) I laboured and gave birth in the water with no intervention and just has and air for pain relief.

I want a water birth again but obviously cannot guarantee the pool will be available when the time comes. I'm only 6 weeks pregnant but I'm already panicking as I just had such a good experience last time I can't imagine going through it any other way.

Not really sold on a home birth as I like the reassurance that if intervention is required, professionals will be on hand to ensure the babies and my own safety / health.

But as I want a Water birth again I am going to look into it.

Has anyone else had a home birth and what did you think? How did it compare to being in hospital?

X

I laboured in the pool at hospital last time and found it to be brilliant for pain relief. Although the birth was not straightforward, I've opted for a home birth this time round for a number of reasons (and if it doesn't go smoothly I can just transfer, the hospital is only a mile or so away). I was a bit reluctant to pay £90 to hire a pool that I might not end up using for whatever reason, so I tried asking around firstr to see if anyone had one j could borrow or buy cheaply. I tried my local homebirth Yahoo group, I tried my local natural parenting facebook group, j tried a facebook selling site, I looked on eBay. What actually worked was putting a wanted request on freecycle! So I got an unused pool and liner for free. I noticed at the same time someone else got one through the local nct email list. I will pass mine on for free locally after the birth. So I would suggest asking around to see if you can get hold of one cheaply - but otherwise you can hire them for £90.

I realised that wasnt quite your question... obviously I haven't yet had a home birth but am looking forward to it. I did a lot of research into the risks and am happy that there isn't anything that is likely to happen at home that the midwives can't deal with. We have a good homebirth team in this area who are skilled and confident in home deliveries which does help.