Setting Up Your Birthpool at Home

Setting up a birthpool sounds like a bigger deal than it is. The whole process — choosing the spot, inflating, connecting the hose — takes less time than assembling a cot. And if you do a quick practice run beforehand, there are no surprises when the real day comes.

Choosing the room

You need three things from your room: enough space, access to water, and a floor that can take the weight.

Space: The Mini pool is about 165cm × 145cm — roughly the footprint of a double bed. You want at least 50cm of clearance around all sides so your midwife can move freely. A standard living room, large bedroom, or dining room with the table pushed aside all work.

Water access: The pool fills from a hose connected to your kitchen or bathroom tap. A 10-metre hose is included in the rental — that’s enough to reach from most taps. If your preferred room is further away, an extra 10m hose is available as an add-on.

Floor load: A full Mini pool weighs about 487kg. That’s well within the capacity of any standard concrete floor and most wooden-joist floors in German and Austrian homes. In over ten years and hundreds of rentals, Trust Birthpools has never had a floor problem. If you’re on an upper floor with older wooden boards, position the pool near a load-bearing wall rather than in the centre of the room.

Beyond the practical requirements, think about how the room feels. Warm, private, and quiet matters — these directly affect how your body produces the hormones that help labour progress. Dim the lights, close the door, make it yours.

Floor protection

Lay a waterproof sheet or tarpaulin under and around the pool before you inflate it. Water will splash during labour — that’s normal. Old towels around the base catch drips. This is ten minutes of preparation, not a renovation project. Higher-tier rental packages include a floor cover; otherwise, any large waterproof sheet works.

Find out about renting a birth pool for your home water birth

Inflating the pool

The electric pump (included in every rental) does the work. Total inflation time: about 10–15 minutes. The sequence matters:

1. Lay your floor protection first
2. Position the pool where you want it — once filled, it can’t be moved
3. Inflate the bottom wall chamber
4. While you can still lean in, inflate the floor and the seat
5. Inflate the bottom chamber fully, then the middle chamber
6. Inflate the top chamber partway — just enough to hold its shape
7. Drape the disposable liner inside the pool, hanging evenly over the walls
8. Finish inflating the top chamber — this grips the liner in place. No clips needed.

Don’t worry about the liner fitting snugly at this stage. When you start filling with water, the weight pushes the liner into position.

When to set up

Set up the pool when labour begins — not weeks in advance. Most homes don’t have room for an inflated birthpool sitting around, and there’s no advantage to having it ready early. Your birth partner handles the setup while you focus on labour. Inflation takes 10–15 minutes; filling takes another 30–45 minutes for the Mini.

The trigger to start: when contractions are regular and established. Not at the first twinge — your midwife will help you judge the timing.

The practice run

This is the single most useful thing you can do before the due date. As soon as the pool arrives:

1. Inflate it fully
2. Check the tap adapter fits your tap
3. Confirm the hose reaches from the tap to the pool’s position
4. Check the drain hose reaches from the pool to your drain point
5. Leave it inflated for a few hours to check for punctures from transit
6. Practise deflating it too — you’ll be glad of the familiarity afterwards

Don’t fill the pool during the practice run. Filling without the liner risks the pool surface, and using a liner for practice wastes it. You’re testing connections and fit, not the water. You can check your hot water supply separately — run the tap and time how long until it goes cold.

Do this as early as possible after the pool arrives. If the tap adapter doesn’t fit, you have time to get an alternative. If the hose is too short, you have time to add the extension. Ten minutes of checking now saves thirty minutes of problem-solving during labour.