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Pregnancy

Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

hiring a birthing pool for home birth? anyone done this?

26 replies

dramaqueen72 · 03/10/2005 16:14

I know this is my ideal, but have no idea on the practical side of it.
where from/when?
how do they keep warm etc etc.......
and my dh is convinced he will be left to empty it by fifty thousand bucketfuls at 3am
please can anyone help?

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
dramaqueen72 · 03/10/2005 16:32

bump,
anyone? someone surely!

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mckenzie · 03/10/2005 16:34

I hired one from a company whose name totally escpaes me at the moment but will come back to me.

We hired quite a big pool but one that didn't retain the heat. Included in the hire cost are the pipes and attachments etc. The length of time it takes to fill will depend on your water system. My husband had to put just one kettle of water in it to warm it up a bit towards then end but that was all. It was very easy to empty as well, you can hire the pump which attaches to the hose and pumps the water out into an outside drain.

There is an old thread on here about home water births (there are quite a few I should think). If I knew how to do a post a link I'd find it for you but I dont - sorry.

Good Birth Company i think it was called but I'll check and come back.

ThomBat · 03/10/2005 16:36

Hi hon, I stated a thread on homebirthsa while ago and Hunkermunker posted some links to pools for me.
Do a shearch under pregnancy using my name and home births to narrow search down, it wasn't that long ago.
TC x

mckenzie · 03/10/2005 16:36

www.thegoodbirth.co.uk
The owner, Amy, was very helpful and relaxed about my pool being quite late going back (second baby so i'd got it in my house quite early just in case and then was 12 days late!!)

dramaqueen72 · 03/10/2005 20:43

you thinking of having a home water birth too tc? oh lovely. will try and find your thread.only abit crap at trackingthem down.......they seem to disappear on me!
mackenzie, dh will be mighty relieved when i tell him its not him and a bucket at 3am thankyou!!!

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Nettee · 03/10/2005 21:16

I hired a pool from the good birth company. It took a while to fill but the hose and attachments provided made this ok. I think dh would take out 2 or 3 bucket fulls and put the hot tap on for a bitevery hour / half hour or so. some kettlefuls as well I think. From what I can remember it wasn't too much hassle but then I wasn't concentrating on it really. The emptying pump was very quick.

It is best to book as soon as you decide you want it and then you can pick it up at 38 weeks and keep for 4 weeks - money back if it goes back early I think.

hunkerpumpkin · 03/10/2005 21:19

DQ, am also thinking of a home waterbirth - am doing some research into different pools atm

hunkerpumpkin · 03/10/2005 21:21

Thomcat's thread here, DQ

dramaqueen72 · 03/10/2005 21:25

thanks hunkerpumkin am now reading four birthing pools sites at once trying to figure out which is best etc.......head hurting!!!

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rubles · 03/10/2005 21:25

Splashdown was the one I got mine from. They included liners, hose, heat retentive cover and pump.
The retentive cover stopped the temperature dropping too quickly but you can get pools with heaters and filters so you don't have to do any fiddling about with adding hot/cold water, and they can be filled days in advance. (More expensive though).

Some are hard edged and some are inflatable. Mine was inflatable but took all my weight leaning on it, so no probs there. I am afraid I know nothing about hard edged ones, except I remember resting my head down on the sides in exhaustion so I wonder how comfortable that would be. Maybe have some sort of padding for in case you go for those.

You can get regular sized ones and more deluxe ones - I suppose it depends on what positions you want to be in for labour (maybe) but I went for the bog standard oval one and that was fine for my size (5 ft 8). I couldn't have laid out flat in it however - but then I again I never had the inclination. I was squatting or on all fours for the whole time.

Emptying it was really not an issue at all - dp did a suction thing (not with his mouth!!) and left it to all run out on its own into the bath, then used the pump on the last bits in the very bottom.

Next time I will use a heated pool, because dp was fannying around adding pans of hot/cold water and I want him to take responsibility of dd. When I said this to him he was sorry because he said he wanted to be doing something useful because otherwise he would just have been sitting there listening to me breathe for 7 hours. I have heard this from other men - they want something to do, because in the absence of an emergency it can get boring for them.

hope that helps a little bit

dramaqueen72 · 03/10/2005 21:30

sooooooooo how fast can you put one up? i have had fast labours previously, and dont want to miss out, but dont have room for it to be up much beforehand -as I picture being in the sitting room (at christmas, with relatives stuffed either side of pool thats up early... PMSL!!) and the draining/pump out thing sounds good -but does that mean i have to have it near bath/window/drain, or am I being very pg brained?

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Princesswaterwitch · 03/10/2005 21:37

Get one that you fill in advance, definitely. It stays warm, meaning you don't have to fill it while you're in labour.

rubles · 03/10/2005 21:42

You only need to be as near to a drain/bath/sink as your hosepipe is long, so you could check the length of the supplied hosepipe or buy a new one.

I can't remember precisely how long it took us to pump it up, but I can't imagine it being over an hour because we had a foot pump and it's not THAT big. How fast is fast for you?

nooka · 03/10/2005 21:44

I have a very strong memory of dh with our two neighbours putting together our pool the morning my waters broke. I had to get up and tell them how to do it in the end (they were arguaing about whether one bit fitted on the bottom, or was the lid - it was the lid). I'm not sure how long it took, but it was certainly up and filled by the time the midwives arrived. Unfortunately when they did they said I had to go to hospital, and ds was born by c-section that afternoon. Still, dh had a nice bath that evening!

nooka · 03/10/2005 21:45

Oh, and ours had a wooden frame - looked quite Scandinavian. I can't remember where it was from (someone in Bromley somewhere), but our NCT recommended it.

dramaqueen72 · 03/10/2005 22:03

fast is 2 and 3/4 hrs last time. so would want to get in after an hour at the most.
I have been reading the pool hiring sites and they are all so different. guess its personal choice in the end? will check my midwife like my choice too......
last early labour dh was building the cot and kept asking me to hold bits for him.........!!.kind of hoping he wont be asking me to take a turn on the foot pump this time!

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mckenzie · 03/10/2005 22:15

we had ours up for about 4 weeks before D day in the end (luckily we had the room). DS used to climb in it (via a chair) and play with his toys quite happily and was a bit peeved i think when it disappeared. I'm glad we had put it up before i went into labour as I seem to remember it was a 2 person job whereas you could fill the pool yourself even in labour.

hunkerpumpkin · 03/10/2005 22:17

What kind of floor have these pools been on - DH a bit worried our floor (downstairs room, suspended floor, '30s-built mid-terrace) will give way!

dramaqueen72 · 03/10/2005 23:48

hm -the sites say they weigh about as much as 9-12 (depending on pool) people standing in the same area. I think my floors can take that. could be interesting tho!

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mckenzie · 04/10/2005 09:31

we had ours on a floating floor and it was okay.

Beabea · 04/10/2005 10:15

I used this \link[https://www.birthpoolinabox.co.uk/}

I shall use it again and in the garden in the summer as the kids grow up.

Not done a link before so hope it works

Beabea · 04/10/2005 10:16

\link{https://www.birthpoolinabox.co.uk/}

Beabea · 04/10/2005 10:17

last try!

Beabea · 04/10/2005 10:17

\link{https://www.birthpoolinabox.co.uk/this}

Gisele · 05/10/2005 18:01

check www.madeinwater.co.uk birthing pool, I've tried it and loved it