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Bathtub substitutes for labour wards

The maternity hospital in Limerick has no bathtubs and only two showers available for women to use during labour. This is typical of many hospitals, especially those built before the benefits of warm water for easing labour pain had been fully appreciated.

I suggested that one solution might be to buy a couple of portable pools, which could be set up as required and stored when not in use, by either standing them on their side, or dis-assembling them. The comment was made that perhaps the hospital’s engineers would raise objections that the floors were not strong enough to support the weight of a full tub of water, and of course this needs to be checked out. There is also the issue of space within the room to set it up, which might be overcome if some of the extraneous equipment was removed (perhaps even the bed could go - now there’s a radical thought!). Access to taps for hose attachments and a drain where the water can be pumped to empty the pool will also have to be available. Disposable pool liners (inexpensive plastic sheeting can be used) will be necessary for each woman as well. Families planning home births manage these arrangements, so it can’t be all that hard to organise.

It is easy to see how these kinds of potential problems could be used to discourage serious consideration of a portable pool, especially by unsympathetic or over worked managers that just don’t want to be bothered. One way around this might be to ask the engineers to investigate the room structures, floor joists etc as part of an overall assessment of the facilities, rather than as part of a “pool installation” program. A pool of water weighs around half a ton, so they could be asked to indicate where equipment of this weight could be safely located in each room, if necessary. Armed with such a report in advance, it would be harder to find valid structural arguments to refuse the request for such a pool.

The next step would be training the staff in the necessary procedures. There are many ways this can be done, and workshops that cover the basics of health and safety can be arranged through various agencies.

As a short term measure to compensate for a lack of facilities, I think buying a portable pool is an option worth considering. I have known hospitals where this has been done successfully and where labouring women were therefore able to enjoy facilities available in other newer hospitals.

Posted by andrea at October 22, 2004 02:22 AM

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