When it comes to choosing a water birth pool there are many important factors that need to be considered.
Above all is the safety, comfort and well-being of midwives.
Though factors such as health & safety, manual handling, long-term value, cost, build-quality, sustainability, hygiene and over-all performance are important midwives safety and well-being is by far the most critical.
Because midwives work with the pools on an ongoing basis their needs must be considered and intelligently designed for.
Designed with midwives’ comfort, safety and well-being firmly in mind.
The ergonomic design ensures midwives can maintain proper posture, reducing physical strains and improving overall results and job satisfaction.
The basis for our unique approach stems from ground-breaking work we did in 1995 with ergonomist Sue Hignet published in the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics & Human Factors.
This led to significant improvements in design that resulted in water birth pools that are safer, more comfortable and easy-to-use.
The key innovation that led to a paradigm shift in midwives comfort was to develop a design with a concave (rather than a vertical surround).
This allowed midwives to sit with their legs under the rim, as if they were sitting at a desk.
To accommodate the highly sculpted outer panels of our pools we incorporated extra-wide rims (up to 250mm) with a distinctive rounded edge.
This quantum leap forward in design provides many important benefits to mothers and midwives:
- Midwives are much more comfortable as they can fully rest their forearms across the rim
- Mothers have simple, safe options to get in and out of the pool without climbing up steps
- Emergency evacuations are facilitated easily with or without a portable hoist
- Mothers use the rim to relax on and for support in upright positions
- Hand grips are set into the rim rather than being surface mounted
- Mothers grab onto the bull nose shaped rim for support from any where in the pool
“I wanted to take a moment to express my admiration for the brilliant design of your water birth pool. I truly admire how your design considers both midwife and mother-friendly features, making it unique and practical.” Parisa Hadavi Bavili – Midwife, Anatomist, and Innovator in Healthcare
In this photo you see how comfortable and well supported the midwife is, and how this enables her to be fully present to safely fulfil the obligations of her job.
She is sitting naturally, grounded in comfort with her legs tucked well under the pool and her arms resting gently on the extra-wide rim.
Note: the rim is not obstructed with taps or fittings enabling midwives to move easily around the pool.
By comparison:
Looking at the majority of other water birth pools on the market you see a very different picture.
The solid, vertical surround of the pool forms an obstacle between mother and midwife making it impossible for midwives to sit in comfort and actually puts them at risk.
In addition, the narrow rim is not comfortable for leaning on as pressure is concentrated in a small area of the forearm.
Midwives have to splay their feet and legs apart and bend forward to get close to the mother.
Not only is this very uncomfortable but, the strain can lead to back ache, tension in the neck and shoulders and time off work.
As a result the ability of midwives to do their jobs is compromised, results and job satisfaction are diminished.
Form is based on function and design is pared down to the essence of aesthetic utility.
There is a reason for every shape, every curve and every form.
As Steve Jobs of Apple said,
“It takes a lot of hard work to make something simple, to truly understand the underlying challenges and come up with elegant solutions.”
Intelligently designed to safely fulfil the needs of mothers and midwives
If you’re looking for a water birth pool we’re uniquely qualified to be of service
Improving Birthing Pool Design: Case Study 18 – Chartered Institute of Ergonomics & Human Factors
