Back Up Birth Pool

[KandyKinz]

I'm planning a home birth and it's very very important to me that I can labour in water.... Hydrotherapy, labour and me get along very well and I just really really want that option available to me. In addition I've developed some quite nasty vulvar varicosities and supposedly delivering in water helps to decrease the change of them rupturing which is something that I DEFINITLY want to avoid!

Anyways, the midwifery clinic I go to is quite small and they only have one pool that they lend out. In my area, the midwife is now only working solo so she has a limited caseload, more then half of the woman opt for hospital birth and I was told initialy that of the ones who do delivery at home most do not use the birth pool so the likelihood of it not being available to me when I'm due is small... Well at my last appointment I was informed that there is a woman due March 8th who has decided to have a waterbirth at home and because her due date is earlier then mine (I'm due the 23rd) she will be given the birth pool first. So essentially if I want to use their pool she has to deliver first which would be fine if you can actually plan things like that.....

The pool they have is a La Bassine and I would need to purchase the liner online in advance which will come to about $40ish. And then there's a chance that I wouldn't even be able to use it which would SUCK! Alternatively, I could purchase a real birth pool which would set us back close to $200 for the cheapest version but then I would not need to get a La Bassine liner.... Or I could get just a cheap kiddie pool alternative for under $50 + the La Bassine liner.... That way if I would have the liner for the real birth pool should it be available and then I could either sell the kiddie pool or the kids could use it in the summer and if I needed to use the kiddie pool as my birth pool and then sell the La Bassine liner to the next midwifery client who needed it.... Money's pretty tight so I'm looking for the cheapest option that would still get me a satisfactory water birth experience. My tub is deeper then most standard ones but it's still not as deep as either the kiddie pool or the La Bassine pool. If worst came to worse I could hang out in there but do the positioning of the door and the tub it would make for an awkward delivery arrangement unless the bathroom door was removed. Plus the bathtub wouldn't give me room to move around.

Here's a link to a birth pool comparison document I found online. The kiddie pool they have listed there is the one I'm interested in. They have it listed quite $$$$ but I have found the same one substantially cheaper other places online.

What do you all think??? There's 9mm discrepency in the wall thickness which makes me a tad nervous but again money is tight and I really really want a water birth.......

https://www.pregnancy.com.au/bm.doc/inflatable-birth-pools-compared.pdf

 

[Jenniflower]

Hey KK, have you thought about looking around Ebay for a used one? We're borrowing one from a friend but would have done this if we had to. A lot of them online weren't even used for birth as situations arrived but since they're all opened up and stuff they obviously need to be sold for cheaper.

It is crazy how expensive liners are isn't it?! We've decided in the end to just clean the pool with Milton and use it with out the liner. Like a few women on here have mentioned there's not much of a difference. Now obviously you'd need it for your Midwives birth pool as it's their preference. But if you found your own that's another way to keep costs down.

 

[Mervs Mum]

Really the only thing the liner is helpful for it speed of clean up after - do you have a doula? If you do she most likely will just get cracking and do all that for you and the MWs may even do that too.

I would buy the La Bassine and then sell it on after. I think from what you say this is important to you so I think the investment is worth it and then you'll get some back later. Or you could see if you could ask for money towards it instead of (cute but often not very useful) baby gifts?