Tips for giving birth in your dining room.

Remember when you used to be able to go to the toy store and pick out your toys? I got lucky with KayBee Toy - they were having a sale on blow up pools when I needed one. This baby had a blow up bottom & see through sides. Comfy and high visibility. Score!

Seriously though...a padded bottom pool was an excellent choice. And $18 for a birthing tub was a welcome price point!

In addition to a comfy pool...make sure you hook your hose up to your hot and cold taps with a Y connector so you can regulate the temperature of the pool. Labor and birth can take a bit of time, so you'll want to have a way to empty some water & replace it with warmer/cooler water to keep you comfy. We used a bucket to dump into the sink, and I had a dedicated "keeper of the pool". He was also the photo/videographer, and excelled at both tasks. (Thank you, Craig!)

My birth team was phenomenal. Truly. I had an experienced midwife, two doulas/midwife trainees, my wonderful massage/acupuncture friends, one of my best friends and my husband. So last tip, and most important to me: Choose your birth team. YOU pick who will be present for you. Birth is a time for being totally present, calm, open, supported, safe and comfortable. Having ONLY the people who foster that kind of energy around you is vitally important. My midwife was extremely experienced, so I knew she had me covered for safety...and the rest of the group were people who were as calm and sure of my ability to give birth as I was.