Birth pool liners and sterilising.........

[sammysam]

I have just bought a birth pool in a box from ebay. It says it has not been used but has been filled-I think with the liner.

Do I need to get a new liner or can I just get some milton and clean it?

I would just get a liner but i'm 38wks and have been feeling twinges and have a feeling so I'm worried it wouldn't get here in time seeing as it is the weekend I we haven't ordered one yet. Plu it would save £30-so if it isn't an issue then that's good, but obviously I don't want to take any risks.

We are picking the pool up this morning so could try and quiz the woman to see what actually did happen with the pool......what should I ask her?

I think the liners are designed to be thrown away so it would be better to just clean the actual pool out with Milton, use without the liner and clean it when you are finished.

You don't need a liner - it just makes cleanup easier, the water won't be sterile anyway

like bertiebotts says a liner would make clean up easier. we used a liner for the same birth pool and it made it easier for DH to empty the pool afterwards, as he could just gather all the water up in the liner once most of it had been pumped out.

you could always order a liner if you're worried about it - you don't want to be in labour and have anything to stress about! and you might be able to return it if it's unused because it arrives after the event?

Thank you!

Would it be ok to clean the liner though? If it makes it easier to clean? I don't want dp doing too much afterwards....
Plus I hope to be able to lend to friends etc so using the liner would be better..?

Sorry, when I said the liner is disposable I meant that I don't know how sturdy they are and how well they would stand up to being cleaned, though I suppose Milton isn't that harsh! Mine never came out of its packet as I transferred to hospital... You could certainly clean it and see what happens, if it split it wouldn't be the end of the world after all.

If you lend it to friends presumably they would be using liners as well so it wouldn't matter that you had birthed in the pool without one, IYSWIM?

Also, are they really £30 now? I only bought my pool a year ago and spare liners were about £20 then. Look at Boots online and also NCT, I found them the cheapest places.

Thanks Bertie! I'll give it a go tomorrow! When I've searched for liners i've found them for £25 plus about £3 postage.

I see your point about the liner and lending so yes I suppose if it came to it we could do it without......i'm just thinking the clean up would be much easier just being able to chuck that all out!