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Do you need sterile gloves for UC?

2K views 18 replies 9 participants last post by  BlessedOne 
#1 ·
Do you really use these and for what? Do you need them to handle the scissors and thread you will cut the cord with or not? Are they used for anything else in a UC?
 
#4 ·
Infection causes a large percentage of maternal deaths in developing countries. In America, we don't really fear infection because we have, in general, less experience with it or loss from it. Because of this, we can tend toward carelessness. The material presented here is only referred back to later, so please mark this page for reference and review.

Aseptic techniques are practices that reduce exposure to infection. They include:

·

Hand washing as described below.

· Clean clothing: anyone coming into contact with the mother should take care to not have any loose dirt or contaminants on their clothing.

· A clean environment: all pillows and sheets the mother will be in contact with should be freshly laundered and have no mildew, food, or bodily fluids on them. The toilet, shower, or bath should be bleached before hand.

· Any tools being used for the birth (such as scissors, mirrors, etc.) should be bleached and then heat dried (if possible). You can sterilize a knife or scissors by scrubbing clean and then boiling for 20 minutes or soaking in alcohol or hydrogen peroxide for 20 minutes.

· Quick removal of bodily fluids including vomit, feces, urine, or blood.

· Quick removal of soiled or moist dressings, drapes, or bedding. Anything moist is considered contaminated.#user__edn1

Antiseptic Handwashing Technique

Apply an antiseptic (such as an iodophor sanitizer) and scrub your hands and fingernail beds for 3 minutes under running water. Keep hands above the elbows during whole washing period. Dry hands carefully as water breeds pathogens. Be careful to turn off the water with a dry barrier between you and the faucet. If no water is available, apply alcohol sanitizer to the hands and fingernail beds and wait until it is dry. Wash your hands before you apply gloves in case the gloves are torn or nicked during use. Bacteria grows quickly inside warm moist gloves, so be careful to also wash your hands after you take the gloves off.

Apply gloves. Do not let your bare hands touch the outside surface of the glove. Do not let your gloved hand touch bare skin or the inner part of the other glove's surface.[ii]

Even after surgical scrubs, bare hands are always considered potentially infectious and should never come in direct contact with sterile equipment or access points to the mother's internal body. After hands are completely dry, pick up the gloves from the inside to apply.

#user__ednref1 Beare, Patricia Gauntlet, And Judith L. Myers. Adult Health Nursing, 3rd Ed., Ed. Michael S. Ledbetter. St. Louis: Mosby, Inc., 1998.

[ii] American College Of Surgeons. Manual On Control Of Infection In Surgical Patients. J. B. Lippincott Co. Philadelphia: 1976
 
#6 ·
Unbelievable, have you ever given spontaneous birth? Fecal matter is very much a part of it. Baby needs to be exposed to mommy flora. No one is sticking their hands inside you in a normal home birth. Why would you wear sterile gloves in a normal birth setting? To hold your newborn? This represents a serious disconnect from normal, unhindered birth.
 
#7 ·
Open wounds are also not a normal part of birth. Tears and injuries cannot be protects from germs by sterile gloves. The bacteria is all around and in you. Good self care and staying away from foreign germs are both good ideas. Again I will say, I would only use sterile gloves to cover someone else's - a strangers- hands.
 
#8 ·
Where are you putting the gloves? How will gloves protect vaginal tears from fecal matter? Gloves are for people to wear on their hands, and this thread is about gloves. If you transfer to a medical facility, the staff will use gloves, as they should. The OP asked if she needed them in her home for a UC.
 
#9 ·
The original question wasn't about sterilizing instruments. By all means, yes, make sure all equipment is super clean. But most babies are born with blood and many are born covered in fecal matter, so I'm not really sure how gloves or sterilization could help with that.

I'm also very interested in your intentions here, Unbelievable. Do you even support UC? I noticed you joined Mothering.com today, and I've only seen two unsupportive posts from you.
 
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#10 ·
to update, here's what we ended up doing: we sterilized by boiling the scissors and hemp cord and left it sitting covered in that pot of water, as we found this info on a midwifery site. we did not use gloves at all. no problems. Dh and i discussed it and decided birth is not sterile and since we will be in our own home we are not exposed to too many foreign germs like in a hospital. no issues, baby's cord is not infected, in fact its drying out very quickly.
 
#13 ·
I don't use them. It seems unnecessary to me b/c I'm not going to wear them any other time I touch the baby, so why would I need them to hold the baby after he is born?
 
#16 ·
You don't need sterile gloves for cleaning up though. Or for doing anything other than suturing really. Just ordinary vinyl or latex gloves. If it is just for cleaning up a pair of washing up gloves would also be fine, although I'd suggest throwing them out with the rest of the rubbish as it would be hard to clean them properly if they were bloodied. Still likely to be cheaper than a box of 100 vinyl gloves, and less waste.
 
#17 ·
^^ true.....I typically have a box of disposable gloves on hand that has lasted me like over 4 years! lol....I don't think they are "sterile" just the basic thin vinyl ones...
I personally would feel better tossing the thinner ones than the thicker cleaning style, but that is just me....although the longer sleeves could be handier =)
 
#18 ·
Yep, the ones which come in a box all stuffed in together are not sterile. The sterile ones are wrapped in in paper and each pair is in it's own individual sealed envelope. There is also a special technique for putting them on so that they remain sterile.
 
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