how likely to get a birth pool at Kings?

[sunbob]

Hello, does anyone know how many rooms/pools there are at Kings. Just had a look at their description of facilities on their website, but am hoping it's out of date as only mentions 1 permanent and 1 inflatable pool.

Thanks for your help.

[jennyh]

From what I remember there is only 1 room with a pool, out of around 12 rooms in total...but then I could be making that up. Luck of the draw I guess, when I had my daughter in feb I was lucky to get a delivery room as they had me on another 4-bay ward for the first 5 hours due to demand! Didn't fancy giving birth in a room with 4 full bays to be honest! :)

[espelli]

My midwife told me that they now have 4 pools. 1 permanent and 3 inflatable. She said that she has never known them all to be in use at the same time but that there was no guarantee as it was first come first served.

[srisky]

There is one room with a permanent pool. From memory there are at least 2 smaller inflatable pools that can be moved between the other rooms, but I could be wrong.

The labour ward (Nightingale ward: 020 3299 3222) hold water birth talks (monthly?) and run labour tours (weekly?), which are worth going to and they will be able to answer these questions as well as show you the facilities. If you call the ward they'll be able to give you the actual days/frequency of these. It's also worth calling again to check about an hour before you set off, as they do cancel these at short notice due to the unpredictable nature of deliveries!

When it comes down to it there is no way to guarantee that a pool will be available when you need it.

Good luck!

[hellosailor]

There is one room with a built in pool - room 12 - ask for it as soon as you get there in the hopes it's available!

They have 2 inflatable pools, though one was broken and not in use when we were looking into this a few months ago so there were only two available pools earlier this year if you include the built in one. Maybe they have fixed the 2nd inflatable now.

I would say that if water is the main thing you've got your heart set on and your morale would plummet if you were to get there and not have a pool (which I have heard of happening to several friends) then take your own birth pool in a box as a back up, you can always leave it in the boot of your car if you get a pool room. That's the advice I was given!

Pools often come up on the forum, and all you need is to get a new liner for 25 quid. Though actually pools that haven't even been used at the birth often come up on here (I sold mine on here after ending up in room 12 anyway and not inflating it!)

x

[sunbob]

Thanks everyone for the advice and info. I'll definately be going for a water birth tour and look into pool in a box costs.

[Belle]

Think i saw one for sale in family classifieds...

[Mrs Nicklin]

I worried about this too. If you are very keen to labour and/or give birth in a pool as I am, I'd say just buy one and bring it with you. It will be worth not having to worry about reserving one! My midwife confirmed that you can do this.

They're about ?120 odd brand new, but you can quite often find new unused ones on this forum for half the price or less.

[vez]

In theory I loved the idea of a water birth or at least using the pool. But when I was in labour no-one would have gotten me into water! I absolutely did not want to get myself wet! And a friend of mine felt the same. And I had even ended up in one of the rooms that had an inflatable pool!

Chances are a lot of women feel the same way so your chances of getting a pool may be quite high after all!

[Fudge]

Had a baby 10 days ago at Kings and when I rang to say that I was coming in I informed them on the phone that I was interested in having a pool. They advised that this was noted but had to wait to see once I got there as to whether available or not.

I was lucky one of the inflatable pools was available. But a word of warning as soon as you get a room ask the midwife to start filling the pool up. It took a long time to fill (over an hour) and I was beginning to climb the walls !

Excellent experience and would defo recommend but don't have you heart set toooo much on it, my first labour I wanted a pool which again was available but unfortunately the baby had to be monitored so I never got to use the pool.

best of luck and hope that you get what you want.