mw says floor wont support birth pool - anyone had a problem?

[gigglinggoblin]

she has been pretty negative about the whole home birth thing so not sure i want to listen to anything she says, but thought i had better check.

am thinking of getting a la bassine, it weighs around 1000lb when filled and i want to use it in the bedroom of my victorian house. our bath hasnt fallen through the floor yet and thats not solid so assume a fair amount of weight should be ok!

obviously birth pool companies wont say you are 100% ok just in case, but i would really appreciate it if you could just say if you had a problem or not using it on a floorboarded floor.

tia

can it go downstairs? i think your mw might be right....

Hi, I think she is being a bit anti waterbirth and even if you decided to move it downstairs would probably raise another objection. Have heard it's about the equivelent of 10-15 people in the room. Found this on the Babymoon site, haven't posted the link as they never work for me....."Our pools weigh 1600-1750lb when filled with water, equivalent to a pressure of around 100lb per square foot - less than that of an average person - and that weight is spread evenly over a wide area. Houses, flats and hospital floors are designed to carry heavier, and more concentrated, loads than this. It might be useful to think of a pool in terms of weighing around the same as eleven 10-stone adults standing shoulder to shoulder.

A concrete ground-level floor would be the strongest place to put a pool. Upstairs, the pool can be positioned in a corner (preferably alongside an outside wall) or above a lower weight-bearing wall or joist.

We are not aware of any case of a house being damaged due to the weight of a birth pool. If you are in any doubt, please consult a builder or structural engineer."

I think any isnurance company refusing to pay out wouldn't have a leg to stand on if they took the midwife's opinion into consideration.....after all what does she know about structural engineering and load bearing?! If in doubt I would get a structural engineer out as they will give you a written report and then in the very unlikely event that you need to make a claim you have proof that you haven't been reckless. My pool is going downstairs in my kitchen/family room, however that is just due to preference, I have attented a lot of home waterbirths where the pool was in on the ground floor. Good luck!

it could go downstairs, but i would prefer it upstairs for several reasons. if i cant get a definate ok it will have to go downstairs i suppose. i am looking at la bassine which i think is quite a lot smaller than most birth pools so thought it had a better chance of being safe. it was the only one of a list of problems she came up with that i cant def say is a load of rubbish so thought i would ask mn!

thanks for replies

Gigglingoblin - I had the la bassine pool but I had it downstairs in my front room (with the curtains closed obviously!!) I felt that I would be more comfortable downstairs so that I could walk around outside in the garden whilst in labour. Worked for me!

Copied from the homebirth website

"Is your floor strong enough? Lots of people worry about this, and to cover their backs, the pool hire companies may advise you to get a report from a structural engineer. In real life, I doubt if anyone ever bothers with this! I have never yet heard of anyone having problems with a collapsing pool! Even the heaviest birth pool, when full of water and labouring woman, weighs only the same as 10-12 adults; would you have a party with that number of people standing in the place you are considering putting the pool? I have been advised by a birth pool company that in practice the only situation you need to worry about is if you are in a 3rd or 4th-floor rickety Victorian conversion flat; otherwise you should be fine! Some parts of your floors are stronger than others. Floors on ground level are of course generally very strong. Upstairs, the strongest areas are in a corner, in a bay window, or above a supporting wall. It is certainly worth investigating all your options for siting a pool, before discounting it on the grounds that you think it might be too heavy for the floor. Discuss it with the pool hire companies which you are considering using. Some pools are considerably smaller and lighter than others. "

Used a birth pool on the floorboards of our first floor bedroom of our 100 year old house. Had no problem, even with me in the pool, two midwives, student midwife, and dh crowded around it. We placed it in the corner of the room and tested it out two days beforehand. We had an excellent very fast pump to pump out the water just in case there was a problem.

gigglinggoblin - I really wanted to give birth in my own bedroom. I wouldn't have felt comfortable downstairs. Hope you get the birth you want, with a supportive midwife.

GG, have just read OP but wouldn't your bath do instead. 2 of my 3 kids were born at home and with my first baby, I spent about half my labour in the bath and it really helped. I can't advocate home birth highly enough. I found it a wonderful experience, despite medical staff for dc1 being quite anti

A bath isn't deep enough to give proper bouyancy and you cant give birth in one because of the size either.

I had DD in a pool in our playroom, about 3 feet from where I'm sitting now. Still makes me smile

sorry, I guess I wasn't thinking proper water birth but water as pain relief and to relax then getting out of water to give birth, which is what I did. Thick moment

i did think about using the bath oxo, she said i couldnt as it would be too narrow (it isnt, she hadnt seen it) but mears said it isnt very suitable for giving birth in for other reasons and i want to be in the water til the end, thats how i did it last time and it really helped. otherwise i would have been happy with the bath just for labour.

i would have to give birth in the playroom if floor had to be solid, am a bit worried about keeping kids out, i can imagine they would be constantly in and out with excuses cos they wanted to know what was going on

belgo, your situation is v similar to mine, same kind of house so is good to know you managed it. pump is excellent idea

that is v helpful daisymoo, its sort of what i expected, they all want to cover their backs (understandably) but i did think the floor would take a fair bit of weight

no way i will be wandering about in the garden, we are overlooked by at least 15 houses! although now you mention it giving birth outdoors would appeal if i wasnt due in february and had somewhere private. rather fancy that idea now

I gave birth in my own bath. It's ancient, and thus quite deep but still fairly narrow. I was on all fours with my legs scissored rather than wide apart and it was fine (and I didn't tear which I'm convinced is a result of leg position as I did tear with my previous 2).

The bath was cleaned with Dettol prior to birth and the bathroom wiped down with antiseptic but that was my own 'super-nesting' and not the midwife being prissy about hygiene (but she's a slut and wouldn't have cared if I'd given birth on the dog's bed) !!!

Hi , I had a birthpool for my son's birth 7 weeks ago. We live in a flat and the room the pool was sited in is on the third floor overall.The birthpool in a box people said the pool filled would have a weight around 750 kgs . They gave some good advice I thought when they said to take any heavy furniture out of the room first . Also as everybody else has said site it in a corner near / beside a load bearing wall . We had no problems. Good luck

Fuzzymummy - Which size pool from bp in a box did you use, out of curiousity? I'd need the regular size according to their blurb. I've had the same concerns as gigglinggoblin although I'm not quite as far down the line yet. I'm just considering having a birthing pool but have been worried about the floor thing. If I do get one, ideally, I'd like to have the pool either in my bedroom or the bathroom (which is quite big), both of which are upstairs in a 130-odd year old house.

I got the large birth pool in a box and we had it filled up in our incredibly rickety old tenement floorboards no problem. It does sound like the MW is just looking for excuses to be negative about homebirth. Ignore her!

I had mine downstairs, it was a Birth Pool in a Box one so quite small and not too heavy. Highly recommend it!

I'm a structural engineer and was asked a similar question about birthing pools by a family member. I'm posting on this thread because I am concerned about the dangerous advice that I found here. Building regulations require house floors to be designed for 1.5kN/m2. A pool filled 60cm deep is a load of 6kN/m2. This load only acts over a fairly small area and might be spread slightly due to outside diameter being greater than inside diameter of the pool. Whether it is safe enough depends on the size of the room, condition of the floor joists and where the pool is located. No one can you an answer on a forum because every room is different. Comparisons along the lines of 'would you be comfortable having 15 people in the room at a party' are nonsense because you wouldn't have 15 people standing in a 1.5m diameter circle. The whole room might have 12 floor joists. A birthing pool might only load 3 of those joists. The comparison with the permitted weight on the entire floor doesn't work. The comparison with a bath doesn't work either. A birthing pool is deeper than a bath and the floor joists are usually doubled up under a bath to give greater strength. You wouldn't employ a structural engineer to deliver you baby, so don't rely on a midwife to do your structural calculations.

Did you not think to check the date? This baby is probably getting their GCSE results as we speak!

Yeah. Well aware that the baby will be here by now, but googled this topic, found this thread and saw how much unqualified nonsense was written. Someone else might decide to have a baby one day and might find the same thread.

Just trying to be helpful unlike you.

@StructuralEngineer

Yeah. Well aware that the baby will be here by now, but googled this topic, found this thread and saw how much unqualified nonsense was written. Someone else might decide to have a baby one day and might find the same thread.

Just trying to be helpful unlike you.

@StructuralEngineer Your addition is very much appreciated, thanks for the info and sharing advice. Most of the searches I have done are as you say, great that people have had good experiences, but all rooms are different, all buildings are different.

For us, I'm still not convinced without getting structural advice. We are on the second (top) floor of a 2004 build estate. A lot of the original works in the whole estate seem to be pretty cowboy-esque. We might be ok, but I am also well aware that there were pyrite works completed on the ground floor within the last two years, since which the building must have "resettled" or something (big fat guess here) as there are a few cracks in our ceilings where there previously were not since the works were complete, we have been advised by the mgmt company that this is fine/nothing to worry about.
Perhaps for regular use yes, but 8000lbs over a 2 metre area?

I'd rather not risk it without professional engineering advice.

Thanks again!

@SoupDragon

A bath isn't deep enough to give proper bouyancy and you cant give birth in one because of the size either.

I had DD in a pool in our playroom, about 3 feet from where I'm sitting now. Still makes me smile

Tell that to my dd who gave birth in her bath by herself!

Came on here to say thank you for this post. I am currently in this situation and really not pleased with the advise I was give. Your response has given me some confidence to approach another midwife for clarification.

Came on here to say thank you for this post. I am currently in this situation and really not pleased with the advise I was give. Your response has given me some confidence to approach another midwife for clarification.