Has anyone used a birth pool before?

[charlotte121]

Have been considering the idea of using a birthing pool when i have my baby. has anyone had any experiances with them? are they any good? do they help? are they not good in some ways? sorry very curious! thanks x

I have had lots of clients use them, they always seemed fab, great for pain and support.

janet balaskas has a waterbirth book, its fab, take a look.....

Yes they are fab.

Ds born almost 4yrs ago in pool at community hosp.

Dd born in an inflateable pool at home 2yrs ago.

Pool now waiting for bump to get moving...

I throughly recommend it, esp if you are a 'keep your hands off' kinda person (i am!) I found the water very relaxing, and supportive, and with ds they added some lavander oil which was nice. Worth looking into, imo. Might sound odd, but I found it enabled me to create a 'zone' around myself so I could turn inward and concentrate.

I laboured in the pool with dd2 and it was fantastic; it made it all so much easier to deal with. I got ut once I wanted gas and air but could have stayed in if I'd wanted to. I totally recommend it.

out not ut!

I heard lots of good things and tried it, but pool wasn't for me. I just couldn't get comfortable in the pool or out. The warm water was nice but didn't take away the pain, and I couldn't quite reach the gas and air so upper half of my body was out of the water, getting wet and cold. If I could have reclined under the water with the gas and air I might have found it better. I ended up cold, wet and in pain rather than just in pain. But it was my first baby and ended in epidural, forceps etc anyway... maybe for a second baby it might be better? I think perhaps I was always going to struggle to get comfortable and my expectations of the pool were too high.

yes
fan-bloody-tastic

no drugs for this badger

yes, I loved mine. it was nice and warm and cosy and definitely helped with the pain.
It doesn't take the pain away, but it makes it much easier to cope with because you're buoyant and you can move around much more easily and it just feels nice.

and like mrsbadger I had no pain relief, partly due to the pool

yes ive done it !! totally fab,you can move about so easily in water...i found it really relaxing. on a negative note, you can only use gas and air in the pool..no mind bending drugs are allowed!

I had one at home, which was very good. The only problem for me was that you had to take the tens machine off to get in and that had been really effective until I got into the pool. I had gas and air in the pool but it wasn't as effective as the tens had been out of the water.

I would thoroughly recommend one too!!

I had an inflatable pool for the birth of DD 11 weeks ago, although i couldn't use it in the end due to meconium in my waters but i deffo want to try it again for the next one!

wicked sounds good. I like the idea of it as people have been telling me you can move a lot easier... i fould it so uncomfortable changing positions during the lat birth so maybe this is a good option for me Will hopefully b ok with only gas and air as i was in previous birth. thanks for the advice

Yep, both my babies were born this way

very very good....no pain relief, as the water supports you therefore no pressure on hips etc

would thoroughly reccomend it

Good Luck

plus you tend to be more upright on account of you can't lie down flat in the pool lol, which helps a lot I found

lol will have to hope i dont get sleepy from the gas and air and take a nap... i somehow managed it with my last one, however i was shattered