On Sat, 06 Sep 2008 15:33:09 -0700, n0tail wrote:
If you want to know more, this site expains it much better than I ever
could: http://www.homebirth.org.uk/
Pretty good site, but I found myself twitching for the Edit button to
correct some of the plumbing-related errors!
FWIW what was useful with our home waterbirth was having a length of
garden hose to syphon out water with it and vacuum out the little Mr
Hankies that appeared in it while SO was straining (I guess it's hard to
control what comes out of one orifice when you're trying to get a baby's
head out of the one next door!). The hose should obviously be clean,
preferably sterile, so maybe a new one, or soaked in bleach before use. We
simply ran the far end out of the back door so its end was lower than the
bottom of the pool, then to use it my job was to submerge the pool end
plus an extra 3-4 feet of it into the pool, put my thumb over the end then
draw the extra length back over the edge and take my thumb off. The water
in the extra length (now outside the pool and running away from it) is
enough to start a syphon action sucking water out continuously. As I say
you can use it as a vacuum or just to take some water out if the level's
too high or to make room to top up with some more hot water. As soon as
you raise the pool end above the water the syphon stops.
Funnily enough I have no recollection at all of where I took the hot and
cold fill connections from, but if I were doing it again I might run
lengths of (sterile) garden hose from hot and cold washing machine
connections, or make temporary connections into the pipework to e.g.
washbasin taps with push-fit (e.g. Speedfit) plumbing connectors which can
be easily reconfigured back to a normal arrangement when no longer needed.
In our case I think I had them connected somehow off a washbasin and were
controlled from there, but with good quality hoses and secure connections
to fixed pipework one could always have hot and cold "taps" (e.g.
handle-operated valves) at the pool itself.
(If you're in the Reading area and want some help with these aspects drop
me a line.)
--
YAPH
http://yaph.co.uk
Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus
and Pop Psychologists are from Uranus