A good question.

Most rentals will cost you as much, or more, or at best, just a bit less then buying a birth pool.

One way to recover some of the money you spent on your birth pool is to offer it for sale to your midwife for 50% of what you paid for it. It is a win-win for both of you.

Another way to save money is to talk to your midwife to find some other clients who have births at least one month or more after yours. The two, three or four of you can share one pool and simply buy additional liners and accessories.

OR… use your birth pool as a personal spa. Relax as needed in the comfort of your own home in warm water when you have back discomforts or when you want to spa with a good movie in the living room. Who says water must stay in the bathroom or outside?

Use your birth pool as a play center for your toddlers.

Donate it to a family who can not afford to buy or rent a birth pool.

Blessings in birth,

Debra
www.YourWaterBirth.com

1) NO!  They can be very dangers

2) NO! You don’t need one.

To address the dangers. Many people have tried placing a water bed heater under their inflatable water birth pool in an attempt to help keep the water warm. Seems like a logical idea.

While attending a couple midwifery conferences, I have heard first hand from several midwives that after doing this, and after the birth they discovered that the pool material had actually thinned where the heater was.

This was alarming. So… please, do not use a water bed heater under your birth pool.

To address my second point, that you don’t need one… Inflatable birth pools hold water temperature better then hard structured tubs or foam structured tubs. The thick air walls on inflatable pools are perfect insulation.

Your pool should maintain water temperature for roughly 5 hours before starting to cool down.

Start with a bit warmer water then  you desire – say 100 degrees. This little bit extra temperature will help to warm the pool material without cooling the water too much.

What should you do if your pool water does cool too much? Simply add a couple tea kettle or soup pots of hot water – very carefully – to your pool.  Have someone “stir” the water while you add the water slowly to the pool water being careful to not let the hot water touch the sides of the pool or the mother.

Another point about pool water cooling down. Many midwives are not rigidly maintaining pool water to a specific temperature anymore. As the mother labor advances and she gets hotter, cooler water can feel great and help keep her cool.

Babies have seem to do just fine in cooler water. Placing them on mom’s very hot chest immediately after birth will keep them warm. If a baby is not staying pink, it is easy enough to remove the baby from the water to warm and pink up.  You can then warm the pool water and if all is well, give baby back to mom to relax in the warmed water.

Debra
www.YourWaterBirth.com

If allowed to labor naturally in water, most women will labor in an upright kneeling position. Often this is the position she will be in when pushing begins.

As this phase of birth continues the women will generally spread her knees wider and lower her bottom closer to the floor of the pool.  This is a safe and more comfortable position for a woman to birth in water (or on land). Her baby can safely glide out of her body into the water then up into mother’s arms.

It is easy to see that in this position the birth attendant can not visually monitor the baby’s progress through crowning and birth. This is where the use of a water birth mirror is very handy.

By placing the mirror on the floor of the pool and with the aid of an underwater light (shine the light onto the mirror and the beam will bounce up to the birthing mother’s bottom) the care provider – and dad – can watch and monitor baby’s progress.

We sell a simple mirror for this use. It is recommended that the mirror be disposed of after each use as birth water tends to seep into the frame of the mirror and the mirror may not be adequately cleaned for repeat use.

With the use of a mirror your midwife can monitor your baby’s progress and well being without disturbing you. This allows you to stay “within” mentally and not be distracted with touches or requests to change position.

Blessings in birth,

Debra

www.YourWaterBirth.com

1) Do not use a battery operated air pump. Most are not strong enough to inflate birth pools firm enough.

2) Be sure that your air pump has a variety of nozzles. You will need a small nozzle to inflate the floor and a larger one for the walls.

3) Bicycle style air pumps will not work.

4) Air compressors – use at your own risk. It is easy to over inflate with air compressors and you run the risk of rupturing your valuable birth pool.

5) Select an air pump that both inflates and deflates. This makes taking down your birth pool easy. You can remove all the air from your pool without having to wrestle with it.

6) Select air pumps from us – www.YourWaterBirth.com  All our air pumps meet the above recommendations.  We only sell quality pumps.

Blessings in birth

Debra

The simple fact that your water hose is designed to attached to water sources ONLY outside of your home not inside. So, you must find the right adapter to access water inside your house.

The easiest location is your kitchen sink. We recommend using the “Y” adapter as well so that you can leave your water hose attached and still get water from your kitchen sink by opening and closing the valves on your “Y” adapter. The end cap goes on the pool end of your hose so you can set your hose outside of your pool and not worry about water draining from the hose onto your floors.

You can also use a shower adapter to access water from your shower pipe (the pipe coming from your wall that your shower head attaches to) for filling your pool but keep in mind that this water source is more complicated. You will need to remove your shower head and have the right tools to do this. You will also need plumbers tape and plumbers putty to put the shower head back on to not have leaks.

Blessings in birth,

Debra

www.YourWaterBirth.com

If you order a pool liner and select the cheapest option for shipping – USPS Standard Parcel Shipping – your package will automatically be upgraded to USPS Priority Mail at no additional cost. Your package will arrive days sooner and you will save money! Two things that matter a lot.

If you are ordering larger items like a birthing supplies or a kit or a waterbirth pool selecting USPS Standard Parcel Shipping, again, the cheapest shipping option listed in our checkout process, it will likely be upgraded to UPS Ground at no additional cost to you and arrive sooner.

There are some exceptions. Our customers who have orders shipping to Alaska, Hawaii or Puerto Rico and other US Common Wealth locations will still receive upgrades for single pool liners orders from USPS Standard Parcel Shipping to USPS Priority Mail but larger orders will not be changed and shipping times will be long.

For US customers living in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and other US Common Wealth locations should always select USPS Priority Mail shipping to receive orders in a timely manner.

Your Water Birth also takes tremendous pride in the fact that 90% of our shipping boxes and packing material is recycled directly from our own warehouse. We do all we can to minimize our environmental footprint. We feel it is ethically irresponsible to purchase new shipping boxes to simply provide a “prettier” package to our customers. Plus, we believe that the majority of our customers are of the recycle mindset and would greatly appreciate our policy of reuse and recycle.

Blessings in birth,

Debra

www.YourWaterBirth.com

We still have available our most popular Pro grade inflatable birth pool – the PRO La Bassine. This pool outsells both the mini and the regular Birth Pool in a Box pools and the past Pro Aquaborn pool.

This pool is strong and dependable and much lighter then the Birth Pool in a Box pools.

Blessings in birth,

Debra

The photo to the far left is the Regular Aquaborn Liner. This liner can be used with or without the blue cover shroud (pictured in the closest photo to the left.  To use this liner you place the blue shroud on the floor below the inflated pool. Put the Regular Aquaborn Liner on the pool, lining up the top handle slots. Then pull the blue shroud up and over the two handles and into place.

The Aquaborn Zip-in Liner is shown in the closest photo to the left. This liner is put on the pool after you have the blue shroud in place. It easily zips into place.

The Aquaborn blue shroud is a great way to protect your Aquaborn pool from abrasions and it also helps to hold in more heat. We sell the blue shroud separately and it can be used on both the Pro and Regular models of the Aquaborn pool.

If you want to save money, purchase our Eco Generic Pool Liner. This liner fits all our inflatable pools and will save you money.  Keep in mind though, that the Eco Generic Pool Liner is not a molded, form fitted liner.

Debra

www.YourWaterBirth.com

Hello BLOG followers. I apologize for not regularly posting to this blog and promise to do so this year.

Well, cold weather is still upon us and it is critical to protect your inflatable water labor and birth pool from cold temperatures. Do everything you can to keep your pool, even it its shipping box, at 50 degrees or higher. Colder temperatures will make your pool material stiff and possibly brittle which can lead to cracks and holes. This, of course, means you will not have a working pool.

Pay close attention to your shipping notice to know when your pool will be arriving and bring it indoors immediately to prevent it from sitting in the cold outdoor temperatures any longer than necessary.

Be sure to leave your pool IN THE SHIPPING box for at least two days before removing it. It is a good idea to give it one to two days more still folded to warm even further. DO NOT UNFOLD YOUR POOL IF IT FEELS COLD AND STIFF! This unfolding can cause cracks in stiff, cold pool material.

Stay warm and lets all think spring!

Happy birthing,

Debra

www.YourWaterBirth.com

The latest addition to Your Water Birth.com is the arrival of SUPER DEALS and a monthly special!

SUPER DEALS combine our most popular pool – La Bassine and a La Bassine Liner with one of three different kits:

La Bassine pool & liner with our Deluxe Birth Kit
La Bassine pool & liner with our Standard Water System
La Bassine pool & liner with out Deluxe Water System

We also feature a Midwife Pro kit and our La Bassine Pro pool with 10 liners.

The Monthly Special features our La Bassine pool & liner and a mixed selection of items from our store.

These SUPER DEALS save you 10% and when you use your Midwife’s Discount Coupon you can save an additional 10%!

Look for your midwife under Shop By Midwife. If you don’t see her there, send her this link and have her register to receive her 10% Coupon to share with you.

Happy Spring!