Inflatable Birth Pools - a few questions if you don't mind...

[Ceolas]

I'm loving the idea of La Bassine for home birth in August.

DH (as usual) is asking lots of technical questions.

Apart from his terror of it puncturing all over the living room, which I am sure has happened to no-one on here, he wants to know -

FILLING - I am estimating about 2 baths full of water required. Is that accurate? We have a crap old boiler

EMPTYING - how does the syphoning this work in reality? Where do you drain the water to? Is it really worth shelling out £35 for a pump?

USING - how much space would we need round the pool? He's worrid about electrical equipment, etc... Can't imagine I'll be splashing around too much.

Thanks

anyone?

It's a sort of oval shape. 165cm x 135cm

I think puncturing is really rare! I am also looking into birth pool hire and have done a bit of research... I think its a little more than 2 bath fulls to fill the average size pool, it can take quite a while purely because you need so much hot water and most tanks will run out and need to refill before you can continue filling the pool. My friend just used birth pool in a box and said it took about 2 hours with a new, but small boiler.

Emptying, most kits you get the option of the pump to help you empty it quickly. The pump connects to a hose which you put into a bath or toilet or outside drain and it empties really quickly. Otherwise I think you would have to have the pool higher than where you want to drain it into (IYSWIM) for traditional syphoning to work. Anyway, do you really want (DH?!) to be spending AGES and AGES fannying around with buckets and jugs emptying the damn thing when you have a beautiful baby to look at?!

I think most midwives would want to be able to access about 2/3 of the pool (may be wrong so anyone feel free to correct me!) so they can reach you at most angles, although part of it can be placed against a wall / sofa etc. I'm not sure about electrical equipment, but would think it would be fairly sensible to keep it a fair distance away from TV etc! With most kits you can get a floor liner to protect carpet etc, although most of my friends who have used one haven't bothered to pay extra (if required) for this - they have just bought a cheapo shower curtain from Ikea that does the job just as well!

I laboured in La Bassine, would defo recommend it. Does the Made in Water website give you details regarding technical questions?

You won't need much room around it, as long as the MW can manouvre around it.

We got the pump as the room the pool was in was lower than the backdoor and bathroom.

Oh, and it didn't puncture!!

Thanks for all the comments. Think the pump might be a good investment...

I had a BPIAB but my dh would absolutely recommend getting a pump!!! I know at this stage it seems like a waste of money but he would say that when you have been awake for far too long, the last thing you want to do it be scraping out rather grim water from a pool! Also, although the pump did nearly empty the pool there was still about 2-3 inches of water left which my FIL and BIL had to empty - but maybe La Bassine won't have that problem. All the best

I am just comparing BPIAB and la Bassine. BPIAB has handles on the outside which I think might be handy for holding onto when leaning over and pushing. La Bassine's are inside and lower down. Have given birth last twice on hands and knees.

We bought the pump because a google search couldn't find one that was cheap enough to make it worth while. I suspect that they have fairly good resale value.

I had a BPIAB. No pump. Left it happily siphoning down a drain with no need to watch it. Last few inches of water and "stuff" bundled up in the liner and shoved in a bin bag. Job done.

I had a small bpiab, although it seemed quite large to me (and I'm not tiny, especially wasn't then!) It was comfy but even with a pump took absolutely ages to empty. Well worth it though.

So talk me through the siphoning bit, Soupy. DH says it won't work because the water has to travel up the side of the pool in the hose (if that makes sense). The website says it helps to have the drain lower than the pool.

I'm sure it does work as loads of people seem to do it

It will travel up the hose provided the end of the hose (drain) is lower than the start of it (pool). Mine went up the side of the pool, downand across the floor, up and out a kitchen window and down a drain Or so I'm told. I was snuggled up in bed with BabyDragon [sigh]

With siphoning it doesn't matter if the water has to go uphill, as long as the end of the hose where the water comes out is lower than the end it is going in.

You can test it with your garden hose and a paddling pool

You need to fill the hose first though for it to work.

Actually, you can do it with a bendy straw and two cups

The traditional way to get the hose started is to suck on the "out" end. I really wouldn't recommend doing this with a birth pool...

If the hose fits over a tap, the easiest way is to turn the tap on for a few seconds to let the hose fill up (with the other end below the water level in the pool), then pull the hose off the tap with your thumb over the top so the water doesn't drain out, then stick the end down the drain and remove your thumb.

Seriously - give it a try!

What potoroo says. I guess, as I said I was tucked up in bed. Actually I was probably being stitched but "tucked up in bed" sounds so much nicer.

It's good if you have the pool in a room you can shut up for a few hours. If you need to use the room then you'll probably want to get the pool empty and down more quickly.

interesting thread but wanted to add a quick TIP for after the birth:

Don't take it down straight away, refill it when ready and take baby for a 'swim', perhaps with older siblings also.

Especially useful if your WB didn't go to plan, then you can use it in a cathartic way to have another birth and heal emotional wounds, no matter how small. Dyswim?

"Don't take it down straight away, refill it when ready"

You'd need to give it a good clean if you didn't use a liner for the birth

We used a BPIAB. Dh said he was very grateful for the pump (we had one anyway). No easily accessible drain so emptied into toilet.

The pool was plenty big for me + dh in, so no need for a lot of space around - we only had just enough space to get round on 3 sides. No splashing at all. I had the regular sized one.

My tip is to inflate as soon as you get it. Ours had a couple of punctures we had to repair.

Oh, and even if it does puncture you won't have it all over the living room as it's in separate compartments and if two were to puncture (1 only would be OK) you'd have plenty of time to empty it, as it would deflate quite slowly.

I loved it