birth tub- what would this be worth to you?

[mrstice]

My midwife's apprentice's husband rents out birth tubs.
His service includes setting it up at 37 weeks, filling it, and showing us how to use it. It is a fully-functional "2-person" (although he says it's really just perfect for one) hot tub, including heater and filter. After the birth, he comes back to empty and clean it and tear it down.
His fee is $350.
I have just started doing some cost-comparisons to pools I can get online, but of course none of them include someone setting it up, cleaning it, and taking it away! How much would this full service be worth to you?

[pjs]

Sounds like a bargain to me- he should charge more!

[cileag]

My midwife's apprentice did this--including set up and take down for $275 so that doesn't seem an unreasonable price. Totally worth it for us!

[hapersmion]

Too much for me. My midwife charges $100 for use of her tub - the birth center I once went to charges $200. You can get a pool of your own for less, usually, depending on which kind you get, though of course you'll have to do your own set up and such.

I just bought my birth pool (La Bassine) on Ebay, for about $100 with shipping. I figure it's a good deal over the midwife's one, because I can theoretically use it for future birth(s) and maybe even lend it to friends or something. Plus my son can swim in it. Also, I won't have to call the midwife early if all I really want is the pool.

Personally, the convenience wouldn't be worth the extra cost to me, but I tend to want to do things myself.

[Comtessa]

My MIL and SIL spent several hours draining our tub by hand in the middle of the night after our hospital transfer. (Nobody thought to look for the pump - even though I specified in our homebirth plan that it was in the box!!) Remembering what a chore it was for them, I'd be inclined to say it's worth every penny to pay someone to do it! Especially if you give birth in the water - speaking for my DH, he would not have wanted to have anything to do with draining a poolfull of birth gunk.

[nashvillemidwife]

Originally Posted by hapersmion

Personally, the convenience wouldn't be worth the extra cost to me, but I tend to want to do things myself.

My La Bassine takes about 10 minutes to set up, 20 to take down and put away. I rent it for $150 (including the water and air pumps), so you're talking about paying an extra $200 for 30 minutes of work. (What you're really paying him for is being on call to come running to take it down when your baby is born.)

[HappyMommy2]

I think it would have been worth it for my hubby. He spent a lot of time setting it up and taking it down, and CLEANING it.

[nashvillemidwife]

Originally Posted by HappyMommy2

I think it would have been worth it for my hubby. He spent a lot of time setting it up and taking it down, and CLEANING it.

Did you not have a liner? That's $25 plus shipping. Definitely worth it.

[badgerbaby]

Sounds like a steal! My dh drove 90 miles to get our Aqua Doula, set it up himself and we're paying $275. We'll have to figure out how to get it back once we're done with it, though the person renting it to us offered to meet us part way.

[Rockies5]

I think I'm going to start renting birth tubs

No, it seems really pricey to me, but I'm a really practical person. I found a MW who includes all of that in her fees.

Otherwise I would use a blow up pool. had an Aquadoula for my third birth and it was quite nice, but 2x as big as I needed.

[Kmama2]

No way!! Expensive. My midwife brought the tub, set it up, took it down, drained it and cleaned it and didn't charge me a penny. She has 3 of them and doesn't charge her clients to use them

[Lily's_Mom]

The place I'm renting the birth pool from will deliver it and set it up, then clean it up and take it away, all for $175.

[Sijae]

Huh, well it depends on what the alternatives are. We loan out birth pools (inflatable and designed for that purpose) for free and the client just buys a special liner for it for about 35$. We empty the pool and clean up as part of the midwifery service. I'm surprised your midwife doesn't do that part for you.

If I were to plan a water birth I would be happy with the birth pool in a box which costs about 150$.

But on the other hand, this guy comes and sets it up early, you say it's like a hot tub which means it's always hot (has heaters)? And he takes it away. That sounds nice to me. I would be using it at a hot soaking/relaxing tub in the weeks leading up to the birth. Being able to use it in that way prior to the birth and having it ready before labor would be worth it to me if I had the money. But if the money was a stretch I wouldn't use it for that.

[acemama]

Originally Posted by Comtessa

My MIL and SIL spent several hours draining our tub by hand in the middle of the night after our hospital transfer. (Nobody thought to look for the pump - even though I specified in our homebirth plan that it was in the box!!) Remembering what a chore it was for them, I'd be inclined to say it's worth every penny to pay someone to do it! Especially if you give birth in the water - speaking for my DH, he would not have wanted to have anything to do with draining a poolfull of birth gunk.

We didn't have a pump and draining it was no big deal. We just used the same hose that we filled with and drained into the shower.

[acemama]

Wow, that seems like a lot. We bought our own La Bassine for $120 (I think). Set up means hooking up the air compressor for 15 minutes. Take down means, draining which was easily done using the same hose we bought ($15) to fill. We did not use a pump just submerge the hose in the pool then lift to creat a reverse syphon and put the hose in the shower to drain the pool on it's own. No biggie. Then wash down the pool, or use a liner, and take the air out. All done. Now we still have a great pool for either another baby or for someone else to use. Great deal IMO. I guess I hate renting something when I can own it for even less

[mrstice]

For those of you who bought/rented your tub, did it include a heater, and could you use it before labor?
This tub is not just a pool, it's a hot tub - and I can use it from 37 weeks until birth. So I can use it everyday, it'll remain warm, etc.

[hapersmion]

Interesting that it stays hot on its own! I've filled up my pool once now to test it. It has no heaters, but the hot water heater did the job (surprisingly enough, it isn't big, and I didn't turn it up over 120). It was very nice, I'm going to have to do it again.

I guess if it's a big special hot tub sort of thing I'd be more inclined to shell out the extra cash - really it's up to you and whether it's something you might like. You could always make it a Christmas present to yourself or something.

[xixstar]

I guess I might be able to see the appeal of the hot tub nature of it, being able to use it before labor for a few weeks... assuming it's not too hot, right? Our tub is small, so I don't even take hot soaks (don't like baths anways), but I can see that being right up someone else's alley.

But if it's mostly just for a birth pool, then no, I can buy a nice one for that price and have it again for any future births or sell/give it to a friend to use if I wanted. Set up and clean up was no problem for us... I think my mw helped, maybe, I don't really know, I just know it got taken care of by someone that wasn't me.