heard about this last week but i was away from my computer for the weekend so just now getting a chance to post. anyway, this is totally crazy! there is some good info in the article on what you can do to add your voice to the protest/advocacy.

read 'em and weep - or just get righteously annoyed...
Birth Pools Seized by FDA in Portland, OR

then there is a follow up blog too
FDA Returns Birth Pools, Warns ‘We’ll be back’

I've been following this on Barbara Harper's Facebook page. How sad that this is happening, and how ridiculous.

that's so crazy!! i guess the war on terror is over now, if the administration is interested in some summer toys now?! (<--- not meant to offend anyone, huh!)
medical equipment? great!! does this mean that waterbirth does actually BENEFIT the birthing mom AND the baby being born?!!!!!! of course it does, and thanks government for ACKNOWLEDGING this! if this is the deal, thanks for jumping in, you can seize all birth pools, put them up in each hospital l&d floor and order that each woman *must* be informed of the benefits of waterbirth by her health care provider!! great initiative then!

Been following this. It's stupid. I get that they may want to regulate them, they like to regulate like everything. But to call them medical equipment when the majority of purchases is to homebirthers is just stupid. I guess my carpet is medical equpiment since I gave birth in my living room.

heard yesterday from a MW that the pools were reported to the FDA by some OB "because of all of the drownings"(!) but they had no statistics, no data, no reports, just hearsay by some wannabe she-who-shall-not-be-named OB! RUFKM FDA!?!?! maybe i should go report the local plumbing store "because of all the drownings" and see how far i can get with that!

Maybe, at the bottom of this is people trying to get reimbursement for their birth pools from insurance companies. They then become medical supplies that should be qualified. KWIM?

The term "medical equipment" is not limited to stuff used in clinical facilities; canes and braces are medical equipment, ACE bandages are medical equipment, so on, so forth. My TENS unit is medical equipment as well. And yes, the FDA is super pushy about medical devices and blood products, from my own experience- I used to work at a blood service and the rules we had to comply with were so numerous and so detailed! Just an FYI.

Truly amazing, considering how many true"medical products" and medications that have passed FDA approval, are used in hospitals and homes on a regular basis; and are the subject of lawsuits and recalls because they have been PROVEN to be unsafe. Seems to me that more stringent testing of exising "medical products" and honest disclosure needs to be done, before they hit the market; rather than trying to classify something as a "medical product" that is not. Birth is a "natural event", not a "medical illness" to be regulated. The FDA's focus is misplaced.

I can see the good card bad card in this issue. It would, like you said, be a great idea to enable hospitals to have birth pools in every room and to inform a mother-to-be about its potential, but at the same time for women that want to deliver at home, at what cost? Will the prices go up if birth pools are considered 'medical equipment'? I know the article was from last year but I'm very interested to know more about this ruling, I'm currently searching the internet for any follow-up to it. I was really looking forward to one day delivering my own child in a birth pool, at home.

Wasn't this dealt with and everything is fine now? I can't remember, but I thought I read something from Barbara Harper maybe on fb saying all was well