Waterbirth In A Hot Tub

[Jen286]

I'm planning a homebirth for my second child, expected in July. I'm not 100% sure I will want to be in the water for labor and/or delivery, but want the option available. My home is kind of (very) small, but I do have a small hot tub behind the house. Has anyone used a hot tub for a water birth? How did you keep any debris from being sucked into the pump for the jets? Ours is solar powered and sometimes gets VERY hot. Ideas for keeping temperature consistent? If you had a waterbirth in a hot tub that was outdoors, did being out in the open have any negative psychological impact for you?

[mamahen2coop]

I'll be watching. I also have a hot tub and want to use it for my labor and maybe birth. I have a jetted tub in the bathroom but I cant picture delivering there, although I did spend a long time laboring there with DS before we went to the hossy.

[tiddle]

I would be worried about the level of chlorine (or whatever is being used to disinfect the water) and the temperature. Also the overall cleanliness of the tub and any resident colonies of anything in the system. If it were me I'd want to drain, clean and disinfect every part of the tub and system including the pump, refill with little/no chemicals as close to birth as possible, then ban everyone from touching it until the birth was done!  Are you able to disable the heating part? Then you could control the heat much like a bath - run a hose to the tub from a sink with a hot water faucet, or use kettles/buckets. 

If you're uncertain about being outdoors, you could give it a quasi-indoor feel by erecting some screens around the tub, or maybe get something like one of those picnic-table tents. That might also help to slow any breezes if that sort of thing would throw you off, as well as blocking any unwanted eyes. 

[mamahen2coop]

It's not in working order right now so it's already empty and hasn't had any chemicals in it for years. I was planning to super clean it then run a hose from a near by water hook up to fill up with warm water and yes, mostly use it like a tub.  I have no idea about the heater part.  I'm assuming you can turn it down to keep the water a certain temp, but I've never had nor worked with a hot tub before so I have NO idea!  We live in the middle of nowhere so I'd actually love to be outside with nothing to look at but the water, mountains, and trees. If the hot tub didn't work out and DH lets me have a homebirth, I'll probably put the birthing tub outside anyway.  I'll be delivering the end of july so it should be good weather.

[tiddle]

Hmm, I'd probably talk to some people in the pool maintenance business. They might be able to help you with questions about cleaning out the system (I'm sure you can scrub the tub just fine, but within the piping/pump/panels... who knows what's safe or necessary?). Are you sure the heating system will even be functional, though? We used to have a solar-heated in-ground pool and after some periods of non-use (especially over winter) the panels would eventually crack and leak. I can't even imagine how you'd manage to clean them out with so many closed waterways... maybe a pH shock treatment. Of course, that system was designed decades ago so you've probably (hopefully!!!) got something more up to date. Or maybe you can just disable it outright and not even run any water through there at all.

If you run the situation by a couple of people who do pool/hottub maintenance for a living they might have some suggestions for things we're not even considering. They should be able to address your filter question too, though I think that if the matter is fine enough to get by the filter catch screen (ie. the one that catches leaves) it will probably be fine from a clog perspective and you'd probably just have to clean out the pump filter (the one that catches particulates like sand) afterwards.

[mylilmonkeys]

If it is currently non-functioning anyway, could you just create some kind of liner so that all the jets/filters etc. are just covered.  I do see a problem with the capacity and filling time and avoidance of chemicals, too, though.  Standing water will grow algae amazingly fast, but to actually fill it during labor would probably take forever!  I have heard of people using some sort of salt solution instead of chlorine in pools and hot-tubs, so that might be worth looking into.  

[mamahen2coop]

Originally Posted by mylilmonkeys 

If it is currently non-functioning anyway, could you just create some kind of liner so that all the jets/filters etc. are just covered.  I do see a problem with the capacity and filling time and avoidance of chemicals, too, though.  Standing water will grow algae amazingly fast, but to actually fill it during labor would probably take forever!  I have heard of people using some sort of salt solution instead of chlorine in pools and hot-tubs, so that might be worth looking into.  

mmm good point about filling time! 
 

[Jen286]

I've never used a chlorine solution in our tub, so that's not a problem for us. I'm much more concerned about the heat and having to clean out or replace the pump after. I'm also not worried about prying eyes with being outdoors (our home is fairly isolated), so much as a feeling of being exposed impacting labor.