Birthing in the water has amazing pain relief benefits. It's becoming more and more popular as a home birth upgrade. Its wonderful to have it as an option if your home tub isn't very big, if you don't have a tub at all, or if you want your partner to be able to join you.
check out our YouTube channel for home birth, and water birth videos!
The best information on Water Births Safety is found here: https://www.ontariomidwives.ca/water-birth
The questions we commonly get are:
Where do I get a birth pool? - search locally to you, Midwives or Doulas will know where you can rent or buy from. Personally we have tubs to buy, as well as a rental tub! The rental tub is larger and requires you to buy a liner for it. The personal tub is for your use only, you need it afterwards, and no need for a liner.
Local to London Ontario? Want to buy a pool from us? Click here!
How do you fill it?
You will want a brand new hose so the water is UBER clean. You attach it to your kitchen or bathroom sink. Check out THIS video.
Anything else I need?
Liner (if renting the big pool)
Where can it go?
You'll need an area with some space, probably a floor that is ok if it gets a little wet. Tile and Hardwood can be hard, so I have seen clients get carpet remnants and put those underneath. The pool is comfortable inside, but your support team ends up spending a lot of time kneeling around you. Also think about emptying, and how that will be done conveniently.
That brings us to the next, most popular question;
how the heck do I empty the thing?
Our best suggestion is to just use a 5 gallon pail. It will be a workout for sure, but its easier than dealing with pumps and hoses. When it gets empty enough you just dump the remainder out and then you are good to go! Wash it out and use it for your toddler someday! Just don't tell them it once contained birth soup! lol