The Search for the Perfect Birthing Spot

So I am super tired and not particularly feeling articulate just now, but I wanted to at least begin a quick post about the process of buying the perfect birthing pool, a process which Ryan and I have hopefully completed tonight.
What defines the perfect birthing pool you might ask? Well I guess that depends on who you might ask. According to our midwife it's a pool about 25" inches high and 75"inches wide, so it is big enough for the momma and her partner to move around in, tall enough to really soak in, but not so tall that it is hard to get into or out of. It would ideally have handles, perhaps a seat, a liner, extra draining and filling points...
A typical one may look like this

They range in price from a few hundred it seems to a few thousand.
And then, there is the discount version. Which yes, my friends, is a kiddie pool. A simple, delightfully unsophisticated kiddie pool.

Guess which one we opted for?

The funny thing is, in the search for the perfect kiddie pool, we happened to find the EXACT SAME POOL actually ADVERTISED as a birthing pool on some New Zealand birthing website...am I wrong or is this the same pool minus the bikini blond and the kids?


yeah, that's totally the same pink octopus.

and then there is the issue of the birthing kit, which we also attempted to finalize tonight. The kit is the assigned box of supplies the midwife has asked us to have at the birth. This includes items you'd expect like a nasal aspirator, onesie and hat combo, maxi pads, plastic sheets (ew) and stranger items like Manuka Honey, which retails at 30 bucks a pop and apparently has healing and anti microbial properties.


So next week is the 36 week (!)home visit, and I hope to serve the midwifes Moroccan mint tea in the tiki lounge out of glasses that look like this
from Casablanca Market
(yet to be acquired)and talk turkey about the birth.
Speaking of the tiki lounge, there was at one point serious talk about, in event of a night birth, having it out there amidst the old fashioned Christmas lights and tiki torches, under the opening in the tin roof, the child to be born under the stars? it all sounds lovely, if a little away in the manger...and what about the neighbors? I am sure they would have to be warned about the primordial screams that could be potentially emitted from the back yard...
on the other hand look at this lighting and ambience!
Wouldn't this be a sacred space to give birth in?

(not necessarily with this audience)
then again there is my funky turquoise living room...

stay tuned for the final report...
xx
jess