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| Birth Tub |
Today is about practicing the set up of our birth tub. We rented this tub from our midwife, Maria. The tub has internallly heated walls that maintain the temperature of the water for an extended period of time. There is also a top cover for the water made of rubber foam that is used for the same reason. It was not hard to set up but it's a little bit more complicated than I thought it would be because of the limited hot water supply in our house. So we needed to boil water off the stove to make the process of filling the tub faster.
It will probably take an hour and a half to two hours to fill the tub. That's important to know of course, because we don't want to be scrambling trying to get this done and stress out while I'm going through labor pains.
The recommended water temperature is at 35-38 degrees celsius but you can pretty much choose whatever you feel most comfortable with as long as it doesn't go over 40 degrees. We heated up ours at 39 degrees and it felt very hot for me. Now, I can appreciate how the water and the heat will help with pain and contractions. And why you are not supposed to get in the water until you're very close to delivering as it might stop the contractions.
Sushi was very intimidated by it, another foreign object in the house. Everything that's new or seemingly unfamiliar makes him nervous.
Here are some good information to have when setting up your birth tub. http://www.waterbirth.org/birth-pool-faq#What_temperature_should_the_water_be_
