anyone use a bigger birth tub and have a hard time filling it/keeping it warm?

[coloradomama1]

ok-one last birth tub question i swear!
i'm thinking about getting one of the larger oval pools
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...pf_rd_i=507846

instead of a smaller round pool so that the kiddos have more room to splash around this summer when it's handed down to them...do you think it would be too much to fill and keep warm?

[MrsJez]

Its capacity looks like 186 gallons or so. I think the BPIAB is about 170 gallons. I had BPIAB and the water stayed warm.

I just wonder if it would take up too much room? Or if it would hinder your midwife's access to you in the pool. Also, I know that I appreciated the cocoon feeling in labor, and the oval pool migh not provide that.

[Belleweather]

The bigger pools are going to have less problem staying warm because more water = more heat = more 'inertia' as far as staying warm. On the other hand, they can be a pain to fill.

We had a fairly wimpy water heater and had to boil water to fill the La Bassine, but it wasn't that much of a problem because (and this is key!!) we'd done a test run and knew we were going to have to boil water so we started 3 big pots going when we began the initial fill. They were warm soon after we got the pool filled up so we dumped them in and all was good.

[MrsJez]

I echo the test run sentiment wholeheartedly!

We ended up doing a test run last minute and I'm so glad we did. We found out we needed to hook up an RV water filter to our fill hose so we wouldn't get so much sediment.

[Defenestrator]

I think this pool looks great! I really love oval-shaped pools and think that Seyvlor is brilliant to start making them.

What I have my moms do (I rent out BPIAB to my clients) is turn the hot water heater up as far as it will go. In early labor, put a small amount of lukewarm water in the pool (so you don't melt it if the water is really, really hot) and then fill with pure hot water until the hot water runs out. Turn off the water and cover with a blanket or tarp suspended across the top of the pool. Then when mom wants to get in, you fill again with water that is at the right temperature to make the pool comfy. Even if 12 hours have passed, the water will hold at least *some* heat and the worst case scenario is that you have a shallow layer of 70 degree water to mix the hot with instead of 50 degree water straight out of the tap.

Doing this usually means only 1-2 water tanks full. You can boil water if mom ends up wanting to get in right away and the first tank runs out.