Some stupid questions about using birthing pools

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I'd quite like to try out the MLU's birthing pool this time, if it's free when the time comes.

Hospital leaflet says I need to bring in a fishing net, not a sieve. Will the type you get from pet shops for goldfish tanks do? How big does it have to be?

Also, do you treat the pool like a bath, so you're naked, or like a swimming pool, so you wear something. If the latter, what's the best thing to wear?

TIA.

Hi Spring the size of the net depends on the size of your turds! You can wear what you like in labour whether in the pool or not. I didn't wear anything in the pool with my waterbirths but I know others wear a tankini and whip the bottoms off at the crucial stage. No harm in taking something and making a decision when the time comes.

Good luck I loved my waterbirths.

I havent heard about any charges and fishing net.. (I am UK based)..

and In birthing pool it depends on you.. how much comfortable you feel .. you can be naked if you dont mind the presence of midwife or doctors(on some situations ) .. otherwise you can wear a top.. definitely you will not be wearing any bottoms and that part will be in water but you can wear a top which will not be so tight or loose so that it will not float in water and bother you.. You can wear stretchable tops which looks.. little bit like sports bra.. they are sleeveless so your hands will be free to move..

I'd love a waterbirth but floating turds really put me off. Is it true that your birthing partner has to do the, erm, fishing?

Sorry to digress! I think people sometimes wear a tankini top but you could obviously go naked if you like. In my case dignity went out of the window anyway and I couldn't have given a shit what I looked like!

I've got 3 DCs and never pooped with any af them. I guess some do and some don't so it is best to be prepared?

I had my waterbirths at home so didn't have a stream of Drs wandering in and out but to be honest I'm not squeamish about nudity and would have gone nude in a hospital pool too.

I'm there with black holes... Do I have to prepare my dh for fishing duties?

I didn't have o take a net & the midwives I'd the fishing

I didn't poo with DS apparently, though it did take me four years to get the courage to ask DH.... Midwives said it's also for blood clots. It is the one thing which is giving me pause for thought TBH but after an initial yuk DH seems willing to go along with it.

I def pooped when I gave birth- felt it during the pushing stage!! I shouted out, "I've pooed, haven't I?!" but noone answered! Dp says I didn't but maybe he just didn't notice. Now, the thought of that floating past my face mid-push.....

The same stuff comes out of you if you delivery on dry land too...

I did poop, apparently, and I was naked. Thing is, that day I wasn't in the running for Classy Bird of the Year, and I didn't put DH off too much as he's doing it all again with me in a few months. We're hoping to stay at home this time, and as we already have one 17mo DC, we already own a bathtime poop sieve.

Yes but you don't see it when you're on dry land!

Haha at "bathroom poop sieve"!

I cut the bottom out of my swimming costume as its perfect material, fit and temperature for waterbirth. I didn't poo either but I had pretty much forced myself to poo upon feeling my first contraction!! I wasn't told to take anything though, assume my hospital had all necessary fishing gear!

Yes but you don't see it when you're on dry land!

You don't see it in a pool either.

I wore a secret support vest so, basically a tankini top.

I can't remember whether I was wearing old tshirt or nothing at the point of giving birth. I was only in the pool for a few minutes - there was so much 'debris' (blood, poo) that the midwife couldn't see what was going on clearly and because everything was happening so quickly I ended up giving birth on the steps while they were refilling the pool. For the brief time I was in the pool, I was leaning up against the side and completely oblivious to anything in the water. If that all sounds gross, it really wasn't. It was amazing.

Spring' you won't care about the poop, if there is any.

You really, really won't.

Sorry, just have a mental image of you turning up a the hospital in labour with your fishing net

Tried two waterbirths (one sucessfully) and have never been asked to bring in a net??!! I did notice one there though in the first hospital. Didn't poop though, but made sure I went as soon as I realised I was in labour.
I wore a t-shirt with the first, big mistake. After having to keep climbing out for checks etc (cervix was not dliating properly) I got cold and wet in this big baggy shirt. Borrowed a tankini for my second and whipped the bottoms off, looked much nicer in the photos! This time I treated myself to a maternity tankini from JoJo then if you do need to come out, you dont have a sopping wet t-shirt.

Katydive, which size did you buy the maternity tankini in? How many sizes up?

Buttery Can't check right now as DH upstairs asleep! But I'm pretty sure its a medium and normally I would go for a large (I am 14-16) but Jo Jo comes up really generous. Its halterneck and really flatters my already enormous boobs! Check their website, its current and it's black/white and red retro style. Always with maternity buy your normal size.