A birth pool is a specially designed vessel containing water for women to immerse themselves in for pain relief during labour. Birth pools work on the same principle as a bathtub, but are distinct from bathtubs due to buoyancy and freedom of movement, factors deemed to be important in labour. A birth pool can either be permanently installed or portable. Getting into a pool of water for labour is often called 'water birth' because some women choose to remain in the water for birth as well.
Contents
Health policy in England stipulates women should be given the opportunity to labour in water through the publication of Intrapartum care guidelines issued in 2007 by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Royal College of Midwives have jointly supported labour and birthing in water, and encourage hospitals to ensure birth pools are available to all women.
Immersing in water in a birth pool is one of the methods available to manage pain during labour, in addition to TENS machine, Gas and air, Pethidine injection, deep breathing, massage and epidural.
Characteristics
Before birth pools became readily available there are many stories of women labouring and birthing in re-purposed tub-like products including animal watering troughs.
Ordinary bathtubs found in American and British homes are not adequate to provide enough room for women to comfortably move and try different positions in labour, such as squatting or kneeling, and are not deep enough to create buoyancy. In order to create the feeling of weightlessness through buoyancy the water needs to almost cover the women's breasts while she is sitting and should cover her belly while she is squatting, leaning over the side of the pool or kneeling upright in the pool sitting back on her heels.
The original circular birth pool Dr Michel Odent used at Pithiviers hospital (France) in the early 1980s was two meters in diameter and .6 meters deep, large enough to accommodate two people and make it difficult for interference during the birthing process. Modern birth pools are somewhat smaller with a diameter between 110-150 centimeters and at least twenty, preferably twenty-two, inches of water.
Factors to consider when choosing a birth pool are:
Types
Birth pools are generally categorised between two broad types: permanently installed or portable. Many hospitals in the United Kingdom now have a birth pool plumbed in, and portable birth pools can be purchased or hired for use at home or in hospital.
Permanently Installed Birth Pools: The National Health Service (NHS) purchases birth pools for hospital birth centres, delivery suites and community midwife teams throughout the country.
Portable Birth Pools: More often used for home births, portable birth pools can also be used within hospitals when a permanently installed birth pool is not available.