Chapter 19: Advanced skills for pregnancy and birth
If the medicine comes as a powder in a bottle:
1. Clean the rubber top of the bottle with a sterile gauze
or cloth that has been soaked in alcohol.
alcohol
2. Draw up the correct amount
of sterile water to dilute the
medicine. You can sterilize
water by boiling it for
20 minutes — then let it cool
before you use it.
4. Turn the bottle upside
down. Be sure the tip
of the needle is in the
medicine — not the air.
Hold the barrel of the
syringe still and slowly pull
the plunger until the correct
amount of medicine enters the
syringe. Pull the syringe out of
the bottle.
3. Inject the sterile water
into the bottle with the
powdered medicine
inside. With the needle
still inside, gently shake
the bottle to mix the
powder and water
completely.
5. Hold the syringe
with the needle
pointing up.
Gently tap the
barrel of the syringe
until all the air
bubbles rise to the top.
Push the plunger in just
a little to get the air
out.
Inject safely
Inject an adult in the buttock or thigh.
Imagine that each
buttock is divided
into 4 parts. Inject
into the upper
outer part.
inject
here
x
or
here
Or inject into the long muscle
on the front
of the thigh.
x
Inject a baby only in the large muscle
on the front of the thigh — never in
the buttock or anywhere else. Pinch the
muscle loosely between your thumb
and finger so you don’t hit the bone.
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A Book for Midwives (2010)