Most community midwife teams support homebirths from 37 weeks to 42 weeks. Therefore we advise booking the pool to arrive on the date listed in the drop down menu closest to the start of your 37th week. Should this fall on a weekend you will need to decide whether to opt for a Thursday delivery or Monday delivery, whichever you are most comfortable with. 

Please do ensure you have read our refund and cancellation policies if you are selecting for your pool to arrive more than a day or two before your 37th week as refunds are not offered from the day following the delivery of the pool. 

Our standard hire period is for five weeks. This is based on the guidance that most community midwife teams follow of supporting homebirths from 37 weeks to 42 weeks. If baby has other ideas though and is quite comfortable please be reassured there is no rush! We don't have any extension fees if you need the pool for a few days longer, we just wait to hear from you to arrange your collection. 

We encourage families to book their pool as early ahead as possible! Our stock levels are live and loaded at least three months ahead on our website. If your 37th week is after the dates in the drop down list then you can select the bottom entry 'my date is AFTER the dates listed' and then write it in the text box below the drop down list. 

We have a flexible cancellation policy allowing hires to be paused as long as necessary (without affecting your refund) to allow families to book quite far ahead to ensure that they can have their pool delivered for their preferred date. 

The stock levels are live on our website the date listed is the next definite date that we can deliver a pool.

If the date you require is only a few days earlier than the date listed it is always worth booking your pool and writing your preferred delivery date/EDD in the 'additional notes' box on the next screen during checkout. If we can get your pool out earlier we will always try to!

If the date you need is more than a few days earlier please call the office to find out our current waiting list situation before placing your order. 

Our pools arrive with everything needed for use during labour and birth. Each pool hire includes:

1 x Birth Pool In A Box Birth Pro-Pool

1 x Birth Pool In A Box Pro-Liner*

1 x PVC-Free, braided, clear hose length *

1 x Disposable strainer*

1 x Birth Pool In A Box branded electric inflation pump

1 x Bellowes foot pump (for emergency use)

1 x Mixer tap connector

1 x Small round tap connector

1 x Large round tap connector

1 x RCD power breaker plug (for use with pumps)

1 x Birth Pool In A Box branded submersible water pump (for emptying the pool)

1 x laminated handbook with colour photos.

* new/sealed disposable items

All of our pool hire's include FREE delivery and collection of the pool at the end of the hire through our courier service.

You should receive two confirmation emails, one will be your payment receipt from either Worldpay or PayPal - then a second email confirming the details of your pool hire booking. If you have only received one email please check your junk/spam folder as it may have been directed there by your email provider. 

If you have not received either email from our card provider or website please contact the office by email or phone to check your email address has been entered onto the website correctly and to amend, if necessary. 

Once you are ready to have your pool collected you can contact Barefoot Birth Pools by email, text or phone to schedule in a pick up or you can book this directly through our courier, FedEx.

There is guidance in your pool handbook and our website page 'Returning your pool' has the latest information and updates from our courier on how to arrange for this. 

https://www.barefootbirthpools.co.uk/returning-your-pool16295d22 

As we encourage families to book their hire as early as possible we have tried to make our cancellation policy as flexible as possible to accomodate change of plans. 

• Pool hire cancelled by the day before dispatch - full refund less £5 administration fee.
• Pool hire cancelled on the day of dispatch/on day of delivery (pool must be collected following day) - full refund less £25 administration fee and return courier costs.
• Pool cancelled after day of delivery - your hire has begun and no further refunds for your pool hire can be made.

We are also able to 'pause' bookings. This ensures that your order remains on our system until you are either ready to have it dispatched or are certain that you wish to cancel. This can be helpful if you need any further tests, scans or appointments to confirm your homebirth and does not affect your refund if you do still need to cancel at a later date.  

We understand how unpredictable preparing for your labour and birth can be and that sometimes plans change. As agreed in our Terms and Conditions of hire during check out we do not offer refunds or partial refunds for hire pools returned unused. 

Our hire charges cover the time that your equipment is expected to be on loan to you and is not available for others to hire, along with the cleaning of all equipment - all items that leave our premises are tested and cleaned on their return to the shop regardless of whether the hirer has 'used' the equipment. 

Barefoot Birth Pools agrees to refund in full all products purchased in addition to your hire or purchased in our Waterbirth shop that have been returned, unused and sealed within 30 days of receipt unless for hygiene reasons we are unable to do so (items falling in this category have the exception to the policy noted in the product description). 

 In the unlikely event of an item purchased via Barefoot Birth Pools being faulty, we will of course, send a replacement product immediately to you. It is your responsibility to check your items within 3 days of receipt to allow us adequate time to replace any damaged, missing or faulty items. 

Your pool status will change from 'awaiting processing' to 'shipped' the working day before it is due to be delivered. Further updates will be directly from the FedEx website after this. 

If by midday the working day prior to delivery you have not received any update please contact the office to confirm your order details. 

As we have to treat all opened liners and hoses as potentially contaminated we do not put these in our commercial general waste. Therefore, returning opened hoses and liners carry a disposal fee of £10 per item returned*. 

There are a number of reminders in your hire equipment handbook, check sheet and in our returns guidance both online and by email to ensure that it is clear that these are not to be returned. It is the responsiblity of the named hirer to ensure that whoever has packed away the pool is aware that these are not to be returned once opened, even if unused. 

*In addition to this, any damage caused to the other items in the box from water inside the hose or that may have leaked from the box during transit may carry additional charges.

Once your pool has been received back by Barefoot Birth Pools  your deposit refund will be processed the following working day. Pools may take more than one working day to be received back so please click on your FedEx pick up confirmation email to see when it has been received back by our office before contacting us. 

Just as when you placed your order you will recieve two emails, one from our website to confirm that the pool has been returned and a second from either Worldpay or PayPal that will confirm your partial refund of £100 for your deposit refund.  

Debit cards usually show your refund within 2-4 working days. Credit card providers may take longer and can sometimes place the refund as a credit against the original transaction date when your order was placed (this depends on how your particular provider calculates interest). 

Please ensure you have checked your transaction date as well as your refund date before contacting the office to investigate your refund. 

Your TENS machine should be marked as sent on your inventory form, in the left hand column. 

The purple handbook is packed behind your pool handbook inside the blue document folder supplied with your pool equipment. The TENS machine is inside a zip seal bag which is usually placed inside the strainer to prevent it from slipping underneath the pool bag and other items during transit. 

If your TENS machine is not marked off on your inventory form please contact the office to arrange for this to be sent on to you on our next day service. 

Just as when you placed your order you will recieve two emails, one from our website to confirm that the pool has been returned and a second from either Worldpay or PayPal that will confirm your partial refund of £100 for your deposit refund.  

Debit cards usually show your refund within 2-4 working days. Credit card providers may take longer and can sometimes place the refund as a credit against the original transaction date when your order was placed (this depends on how your particular provider calculates interest). 

Please ensure you have checked your transaction date as well as your refund date before contacting the office to investigate your refund. 

If you have not received the full £100 please ensure you have checked your email communications with Barefoot Birth Pools before querying your refund balance.

If you have added any items on to your order either before your pool was shipped or during your hire these will automatically be deducted from your deposit. 

If you have been charged a disposal fee for returning an opened hose, opened liner or a deep clean fee for returning a wet/stained pool we do not automatically email you unless there are additional charges to the flat rate deductions to discuss. 

If we have made a deduction due to missing or damaged items you will be contacted by email to explain the deduction and to discuss sending on any missing items to our office.