Anything bad happen if a baby is born in a swimming pool?

[Just1More]

If I can convince dh, we can maybe get a pool this summer. And I was thinking how I might like to try it out when I'm in labor. But, it tends to go pretty fast for me towards the end, and that's when I would want to be in it anyway. What happens if the baby is born there? I can't imagine I'd get out at that point...ladder and all and run in the house and up the stairs, lol!

Obviously, the pool would need dumped and cleaned. The water would have been treated, and only warm from the sun...

It just doesn't seem like a good idea. Thoughts?

[zoebird]

well, i don't think it's a terrible idea.

if the pool is salt water or natural cleaned (a natural pool, you can look it up), then it's actually something that i would consider birthing in.

but, if it's a regular, highly chlorinated pool, then no, i wouldn't birth in it. i don't go in chlorinated pools if i can help it anyway.

i can't see how it would be different from any other water birth, honestly, but it would require more clean up (draining and cleaning the pool, as you mention).

[evjolin]

from what little i know about waterbirth, i think water temperature is important...so not sure if the pool is not heated if you would be able to safely birth in it. my undersrtanding is that the h2o temp needs to be at or within a few degrees of body temperature, which is awfully warm for a huge pool....

the reasoning is that a temperature change is what causes the baby to start trying to breathe on his own.....future posters correct me if i'm wrong!!

[ma_Donna]

Water was great for me while I was in labor. My concern (or rather my partners) for birthing in a large pool would be the clean up! Look into the fishy pools. Very affordable and used for birth all the time Look around the forums here for more info.

[rparker]

Pool chemicals + newborn ... probably not a great idea.

Cooler/barely warm water also might not feel great once you're in labor. The shower in the hospital where I had my last birth didn't get above tepid and I had to get out because it was making me more uncomfortable.