Did you turn up your hot water heater before your waterbirth?

[cryswilkins]

We will be having our third baby sometime in the next few weeks at home. Did you crank up your hot water heater before the birth to help in filling the birth pool? How long before the birth did you do it? And do you think it helped?

[tiacait]

My husband had grand intentions of doing this so that the tub idea would work out perfectly, but it turns out that I used all the hot water in the shower during labor and we didn't have any left to fill the tub. Luckily, it was a short labor so I was focused enough to not really care in the moment. I'm not even sure if we would've had time to fill the tub. Those things take forever!

[Honey693]

We didn't.  We just moved and the house has a brand new hot water heater and it's awesome.  We filled the tub up and I complained it was too hot, which is so not me.

[EcoConsciousMom]

We did, but we had to. It was a really old cabin in the mountains, in the middle of winter, with a small hot water heater. We had to fill the tub with hot (no cold), then wait 2 hours, then fill it up more with hot, then wait 2 hours, ... until it was full. I don't think the tub would have been as hot without turning up the water heater. Thankfully we got it filled before I started pushing. Just remember to turn it back down after the birth.

[IdentityCrisisMama]

We did -- figured it was an easy enough precaution. 

[onemommyonemama]

we did. just a couple hours before. it heats fast. don't forget to turn it down well before doing any laundry/dishwashing. Aparrently you can ruin your appliances :) I put a sign on them to remind our midwives :)