'Birth pool in a box', mini or regular? + Water birth positions advice please!

[Moomin48]

Hi!

Wonder if anyone can help who has used a 'Birth in a box' pool or had a water birth more generally?

I'm (hopefully!) having a home birth in a pool. 37 + 5 at the moment and probably a bit late in the day, trying to decide what birth pool to order.
I'm quite tall, 5 foot 8 or 9, so wanted to go for the regular (bigger) 'Birth pool in a box' but just measured and it will take up all the floor space in our living room so isn't really doable if my husband and the midwife needs access to me while I'm in there.

So the options are: 1. get the mini (smaller) Birth pool in a box for the living room but don't know if i'll feel constrained as the measurements seem quite small and I wouldn't be able to sit in it and lie my legs out flat even, or 2. maybe have the regular size but in the kitchen/diner though it's not very cosy or nest like in there so not ideal.

Has anyone who has had a water birth needed to stretch out their legs? Or is it more squatting type positions usually? The smaller pool size would be fine if the latter...

Or has anyone tallish used the mini Birth pool in a box and how have you found it if so??

Thank you so much! x

I ended up going with La Bassine regular size. I didn't get chance to get in. I'm 5 7 and thought it looked plenty roomy.

I would advise squatting down or on all fours unless you're too exhausted and need to lie down. That would just slow things down. And I find it much more painful.

Here the regulations are you must have two midwives present during delivery stage of water birth. And you must have two for a home birth here also.

I just say this because my living room felt VERY crowded with me, DH, and two midwives. They bring sooo much kit with them. Plus you need a space set up to lie down and deliver the placenta.

The room felt ok with the pool in but terribly crowded with the midwives and all their stuff.

So I think I'd go with the smaller. You do see plenty for sale online from people who didn't get to actually use them. I'm still glad I had mine there it was reassuring when my back was starting to ache.

We went for the birth pool in a box mini and I found it plenty roomy but I'm only 5ft4.
I wasn't in it long either as I went from 3cm - 10cm in about an hour and only just got it filled before I started pushing.
I birthed kneeling up with my head resting on the side on my arms with the gas and air in my mouth lol.

I really liked the pool and found it amazing to birth in. My dd1 was born on dry land on my back In hospital and it was so much less painful in water and I got away with a graze second time after 2nd degree tear first time.

Hmm thank you both v much for that. and really good to hear that your water birth was less painful than out of water, Scattymum.

Sounds like I probably won't want to be stretched out in the pool anyway so maybe the mini would be ok. Though even the mini would make our living room pretty crowded with husband plus 2 midwives, and would mean I couldn't really be in there (cosiest room) on my ball or whatever while the pool was being set up, so maybe having the pool in the kitchen/diner would be better, then I could have the bigger one too... Aggh, I'm rubbish at making decisions at the best of times!

I'd seen loads of pools for sale on ebay but was a bit unsure about the hygiene of reusing them - even if they'd just been set up for a trial and not actually used for birthing. I guess with a new liner it must be OK.

Sorry another question...do you think it's better to have the pool in the main room for labouring (as in warmest, darkest, nicest etc)as that's where I will hopefully have the baby, or have it in another room so I can stay in the main room for as long as possible while the pool is filling? xx

I just did everything in the living room. How big is your living room?

Mine isn't huge but we moved a lot of furniture out to have some more room

I was on all fours in it for contractions and kneeling for pushing. Went with gravity, I didn't deliver in there though as was hot and bothered and wanted out of there.

That's what I figured about the liner. You can hire pools so they have been cleaned and then get used with liner. Though you have to replace most of the other kit too so not much cheaper than buying whole package new.

You should be able to get a pool cover. That way you can fill it up when things start really happening and the temp will keep for hours. When you're good to go you can just hop in. I think you have to be at least 4cm?

I had a water birth at hosp first time and got in around 7cm and the relief was immense.

Re choosing rooms, do they all have hard flooring?

Also is there a room that would be best to station midwives with cup of tea so they can jot their notes and let you get on in privacy in other room. If the labour goes for hours you may get sick of being in the same room as them and want some privacy with DH.

As lovely as mine were, I got sick of having them around and wanted some privacy. This was the transition phase when I am miserable! And they were only there two hours before baby came so hadn't really had time to get tired of them.

I ended up going into the kitchen a lot and leaving them. I actually enjoyed the kitchen bench and tugging down on oven door for support while upright for contractions.

I just didn't get to use my pool because I was 4cm and not having regular contractions. And then baby just snuck out.

I was quite lucky I that my mws never arrived Til I was 10cm so I never had to put up with them for long. They annoyed me as soon as they arrived lol and they only arrived 20 mins before the birth.

I had the mini, I'm about 5ft 4. Plenty room - spent it mostly on my knees leaning over the side. I could stretch legs out though if sat down. It was very comfy and the company 'birth pool in a box' were amazing - so helpful and flexible with all the arrangements etc. the equipment was really good too, even my midwives were impressed with it all. They name their pools after babies born in them - ours was called 'Tom'

I would recommend having it in the nicest, darkest room and use your bouncy ball elsewhere whilst the pool is being filled if there's no room. I had a bath while the pool was being filled and had my ball upstairs before going down and getting in the pool. Takes a good while to fill so I left that to my husband. I was in it about 6 hours - I loved it!

We didn't have loads of space either so the midwives had all their gear in the hall and only brought in what was needed at the time.

Good luck with it all!

I also had a la bassine but I am short so didn't look into the dimensions so much - someone gave it to me. It was really rammed in the room we had it in though - although as I gave birth alone with my husband on the phone to 999 it didn't really matter! ;)

I would defo put in a comfy room as you might be in it for a while. It takes a while to fill but not ages. You can just hang out in your bedroom or bathroom or wherever feels right at the time? I laboured on a futon on the floor downstairs for most of mine. Didn't plan it just ended up there!

Hope it all goes well :)

Thank you all, really useful.

Our living room is quite small but has a bay window so if we did get the mini and pushed it right into the bay and got rid of the chair at the other end of the room it would leave about half of the floor space and a bit of room down the sides of the pool.

Good to hear you felt the mini had plenty of room Yarpyarp. And that it's best to have the pool in the cosiest room. Hadn't really considered that I could be in the pool for so long but it would be much better in the living room than the kitchen/diner. Then the mws could go in the kitchen and make themselves cups of tea, if they were here for a while, and they could leave us to it. And I could have a bath while the pool was filling... And it might be better to be in a small pool and feel enclosed and cosy than lots of space around me feeling watched.

So yes, decision made, I'll go for the mini in the living room. Thank you all SO MUCH xxx

Our living room is 14ft by 14ft.
I've got a pic of when we did a test run but just need to blank out hubby haha.

Birth pool mini

Ha ha brilliant! Just ordered the mini. Thank you!

Meant to say, if your birthing partners are getting in with you at any point then you'll definitely need a bigger one.
That was out of the question for us but I think that's a big part of why they have bigger ones available!

Yeh we didn't fancy hubby getting in hehe. He still managed to deliver dd though as I was nervous about catching her if I was leaning over the side so he caught he and handed her through to me under the water and I lifted her out the water. Was amazing.

I just had dc2 in a mini. We live in a teeny flat - with only a living room and galley kitchen downstairs. There was space for the pool and 5 midwives (! I laboured over a shift change a no one wanted to 'miss it'). The pool was like my little bubble and once in it I could block out all the people and stuff going on (DC1 woke up about an hour before I gave birth, so it was all going on!)

I actually found I had plenty of space to spread out - at one point I was kind of lying on my side in the pool. But when it came to pushing baby out I was up on my knees. Same with DC1 (who I also delivered in a mini).

Oh - and our living room couldn't have been less 'near like', unlike the space I gave birth to DC1 in. But it didn't seem to hold me back. As I said - the pool became my own safe space and that was all I needed.

'nest like'