Birth Pool resources and information - Page 12

[lpgautogas]

@stacyl; Nice post...Thank you very much!!......

[lpgautogas]

Nice post...Greatly appreciated!!!

[kittywitty]

Ok, I bought the fishy pool and a pump- Wayne 1/6HP submersible to drain the pool-the Python did NOT work last time for us. It says it needs a 3/4 inch drain hose. I can NOT find a 3/4" drinking water hose. How bad would a regular hose be to use?

Also, are the brass and plastic adaptors the same for the internally threaded faucet? Mine looks like the example in post 154 (internal) and I'm not buying the python fill & drain this time-just the adaptor and hose, probably. Anyone use the python hose on an electric submersible pump?

[HeatherB]

kitty, for the hose are you talking about just to drain? I just pulled out our drain pump last night to look and it looks to me like it will need one of those clear aquarium/pond-type hoses instead of a standard water hose. The connector has rings that look like they will grip a hose but not threads, if that makes sense. I'm not going to worry about material on the drain hose (though I would avoid vinyl in my house at all times as much as possible) because it won't affect me or baby.

I don't know much about the faucet adaptors so will let someone else comment on that. I am now grateful we never took ours off after my last birth 3 years ago! Though I do need to get a new hose!

[kittywitty]

My pump has threads like a regular hose would go on there. I was kinda hoping to only have to buy one hose for filling and draining to minimize how much stuff to buy overall.

Does anyone know the diameter of the Python hose?

[butterfly1001]

Bumping to the top...can we get this re-stickied?

[roostmonkey]

Question to Canadian mothers... Is it possible to get the fishy pool anywhere?

I have found this alternative at Canadian Tire which seems like an alternative option. Also has an inflatable bottom which I am not sure the fishy pool does. - http://www.canadiantire.com/AST/browse/2/OutdoorLiving/1/BackyardFun/Pools/PRDOVR~0813013P/Round%252BInflatable%252BPool.jsp?locale=en

Also not sure whether it is toxin free but I am going to wander down to Canadian Tire and check it out.

Here is a link to a comparison PDF file which I found quite handy - http://www.yourwaterbirth.com/editorfiles/file/Pool%20Comparison%20Chart%208-10.pdf

[mamahen2coop]

Bump for reading

[jenrose]

Bumping, with some questions and comments:

1. I'm really disappointed in the "you won't need a heater, just empty some out and refill" answer. At my last birth, I managed, with some 5 gallon bakery buckets and a creative piece of pvc pipe with a wad of duct tape on the end, to maintain the temp manually, but my tub was IN my kitchen, so with the pipe, I could reach the faucet and nudge it on or off as needed. BUT... we're in a different house now. That won't be possible. And I don't like wasting the water...it's not dirty, just cold. So I need a heater. I've got a hard-sided Rubbermaid horse trough (100 gallons) but I'm having a hard time figuring out WHAT heater I should get for it without breaking the bank or burning myself. 

2. Draining... Oh my god. When I used the tub in late pregnancy, I siphoned the water out every day or two. When I had the baby... my husband and my father and possibly my brother in law DRAGGED 60-70 gallons of water to the sliding door and dumped the bloody birth water on the patio. O.O. We're going to try to get a faucet for the tub drain this time, so they're not tempted to do anything that stupid again. I think one of them hurt his back. Duh.

So, our setup:

First, I'm a big mama. I was wearing 3x clothing last time, I'm 5 foot 8 with LONG legs, and I'm not narrow. We used a 100 gallon rubbermaid tank.

Freedom of movement wasn't huge, but I could get in and out easily without help, I could squat, kneel, drape myself on the side... it all worked. 

Because of the amount of water I displace, we could fill the tank in about 20 minutes with one hot water heater. However, 60-70 gallons cools a LOT quicker than  100-130 gallons. So I had to fuss at the water temperature a lot.

I never missed padding, except at my neck. I think I used an inflatable tub pillow. Or I should have. It just wasn't a huge issue.

Setup was thusly:

100 gallon stock tank (25 inches tall, so as tall as anything else, plus you can't push the sides down, period, ever)

1 faucet adapter

1 drinking water quality hose (which got used for gardening, darn them, but is now 6 years old, so I'm sucking it up and buying a new one, 50 footer this time, so we can get water from a second heater if we need to, we've got a couple on the property.)

1 crappy garden hose for draining

1 12 foot long pvc pipe with a wad of duct tape on the end (sticky side out)

Several empty 5 gallon buckets I begged off the bakery at Costco.

1 pint empty yogurt container, clean, with lid, for peeing in. This time round, used pho ga containers seem to be our "little bucket" of choice. This is because at term with SPD, climbing in and out of a tub to pee vs. just standing up and peeing in a container is not worth it. After the number of pregnancy tests I took, I'm VERY good at peeing in small containers.

1 pitcher for bailing

Chair next to the tub for me to put books on

extra towels

Now, in actual labor, I probably spent... 10 minutes in the tub while giving birth. But we set it up when I was 35 weeks and I used that thing every day or two until my daughter was born. A whopping 6 1/2 weeks later. 

I couldn't have given birth vaginally without that tub. Kiddo had a giant non-moldy head, pathalogically so. I didn't dilate to 10. I didn't dilate up to 11. I dilated to 12 or 13 cm, and pushed that giant head OUT without tearing. Broke my tailbone and separated my pelvis doing it, but that tub saved us from a c-section and all sorts of other crap that would have happened if we'd transferred. 

So I'm looking forward to setting the tub up soon again, but there's no way for me to control the water temp without getting out and in a lot, and that's unacceptable. We actually have a jacuzzi tub upstairs, but even with a overflow cover, that thing is just NOT deep enough, and it hurts to climb in and out of. And it's wider than it needs to be, so it takes FOREVER to fill. And I don't need jets. 

So I need a heater for the Rubbermaid tank. And we're definitely having a midwife this time, so we should probably line it so she can see. And I'm at a total loss, trying to figure out what heater will work. Honestly I wish there was a way to make our Jacuzzi about 4 inches deeper, I think I could rig something from the second water heater. 

[HeatherB]

I have heard of getting waterbed heaters, but I know nothing more than that... I did a have a friend who put some sort of heater under her fishy pool for her first one, but that wouldn't work so well with a trough.

Oh, and urine is sterile. It's perfectly safe to skip the standing and peeing on target altogether.

Please do post if you figure something out for a heater! I wonder if you could find whatever they use for the birth pools that come with them? Now I can't remember it's name... Aqua Doula, maybe?

[jenrose]

I was hoping to find out what the hard-sided birth pools use, but I'm terribly worried it's going to be "spa heater" which is a $500 item. It just seems like it shouldn't be that complicated.

On the other hand, researching this has shown me things I'd never have believed existed, like hot tub heaters cobbled together out of a barbecue grill and a copper manifold. O.O Yeah, not heating the birth tub with propane. 

[HeatherB]

Gee, why ever not?!

I really wish it weren't so complicated! I hope you can find an easy solution. There is something about electricity + water that makes it tricky.

[jenrose]

So now I'm trying to figure out which waterbed heater would be appropriate. I posted to my facebook, hoping some of my geek friends would have brilliant ideas. One of them pointed me to a website discussing the benefits of trashcan-sized nuclear devices that will someday power colonies on the Moon and Mars. I cannot believe I actually said, "No, I'm not going to use a trashcan nuclear reactor to heat my birth tub", but that's the kind of friends list I have.... lol!

Not going to use the Redneck Pool Heater either. (Look it up. It's... um... unique.)

Of course this is all complicated by the fact that SOMEONE in my family lost the dang plug for the tub, which I have to replace somehow. Meh. And the place I bought the tub from now charges twice as much for a new tub, and the cost of the plug is a whopping $25, which is more than half of what I paid for the tub in the first place! Crazy. So DH is scrubbing the tub out and loading it into the van for me to drag off to the hardware store to see what we need to make it work. 

If only my jacuzzi tub upstairs was a couple inches deeper.... but I just cannot get truly comfortable in it with my belly sticking up out of the water. Seems like such a waste to have this great tub upstairs.... only it's too dang short. First world problem, but still. Oh, and we thought the hall shower was on the downstairs heater, but it isn't, so that was a bust. If I could fill it full in 20 minutes, I'd probably put up with the 4-inches-too-short. But it takes an hour to get to a comfortable depth. 

[mamatogirls]

If anyone is interested I have a La Bassine PRO Birth Pool that I would like to sell since I won't ever need it.  It was never used for labor/birth.