Tips for filling Birth Pool in a Box

[Marx]

Hello everyone

Just hoping that some of you could share your tips for filling the birth pool in a box, we've not got one of those boilers that heats water as it is used but a tank (no idea what size).

All suggestions welcomed.

Thanks

M

I would say put in the hot first, and then gradually add cold - better to have too hot and have to empty some, than too cold and no hot water left.

Is it possible for you to get hold of an urn (one of those plug in electric ones they use for tea at school fairs?!) or just a couple of really huge pans? If you keep those at a gentle simmer then you always have hot water for a top up with a bucket even if you have drained the tank. Can take quite a while to reheat a full tank and I seem to recall that I wanted my water deep and hot - kept saying hotter hotter!

Also do a practise run a week or so before your due date , so you know how much water it actually takes to fill your pool compared to the size of your tank.

I always really wondered how these home birth pools worked with having warm water.

Mine was fine, despite my worries in advance (old crappy boiler, smallish tank). And the pool was one of the rigid ones, so bigger than the in-a-box type. We had the water on 'constant' and when it did run out it seemed to get hot again in about 20 mins. I think once or twice DP topped it up with a kettleful or saucepandful of boiling water - adding a little bit of boiling water makes a big difference to the temperature of even a huge amount of water. And you don't want it as hot as a bath anyway.

But I did have a slow labour - if you end up having one that only lasts a few hours you might not have time to get it filled. But anything over about 3 hours and you should be fine.