pool hire for home births

[itsababslife]

Does anyone have an opinion/review about the different types of pool available to hire for at home ?

I'm considering it as the pool at the hosp is allocated on a first come first served basis. I could do with one that can accommodate someone quite tall - i'm nearly 5'10"

I had one of those La Bassine heated pools second time around. I am 5'8" and one of my gripes with it was that it was too large for me, so I didn't feel secure and enclosed enough. My other gripes were that it took a lifetime to fill/heat up so we had it up for a week and then had to completely refresh it because my midwife was (rightly or wrongly) getting me jittery about the hygiene. It was after we drained it that my braxton hix's started seeming significant and we had a marathon task ahead getting it ready in case things started soon. Twas a right fanny. Another gripe I had was that although it said it had a temperature control I don't think it was accurate enough and it felt way too hot despite what the thermometer said, and as it was so big it took longer to cool down. All in all, not a brilliant experience.

First time round I used a round inflatable pool from splashdown which was very good. Quicker to fill and size-wise felt ideal for me...that was 2004 though, so I can't really remember the precise size. It was their cheapest one. The downside about that was that dp had to fill it from the boiler and then using pans of hot/cold water to top it up. It kept him busy which felt too hectic for me at the time.

Thanks rubles, thats useful information. I'm thinking giving dh a purposeful job to do fetching buckets of water might be a good idea (he's the practical type) !