Birth pool hire vs buy?

[NuKe]

I'd love to hear from ladies who have either hired or bought their birth pool and pros and cons of both! It seems to me that the only thing that would keep me from hiring would be hygiene reasons, but obviously there would be a liner etc. And where's the best (i.e. cheapest ) place to get one?

 

[madasa]

I bought one second hand for about £40! Off here, actually.

To be honest, I probably wouldn't hire/buy one if I had my time over. I would probably look to hire a doula that loaned a pool out as part of her services. Much more bang for your buck

 

[Twinkle81]

We hired a birth pool, but that is because we went all out for the heated wooden version with water cleaners. as i labour quickly and we probably wouldnt have had time to fill it as we didnt have the right heating system. you can buy disposable liners but my hubby just gave it a good clean when we got it, even though it was already but i am a bit funny anyway it was great as we had it up for a bout 3 days with the water in it before i went into labour and i could just jump straight in. it took us 3hrs to fill the pool up and my labour was only 2hrs 48mins so i am glad we did it this way.

 

[sam#3]

i would buy one, even if its 2nd hand because then you aren't on a companies time scale to get to use it iykwim.
i would advise against liners too because they will crinkle up under your knees/bum/legs etc and its really uncomfy! a good clean with super hot water and milton does the job imo

 

[NuKe]

ty sam!

 

[madasa]

Yeah, I would also give the liner a miss, just clean it REALLY well and milton it, job's a goodun!