Chapter 23: Manual vacuum aspiration (MVA)
There are 2 types of medicine to lessen pain from MVA. You can give pills by
mouth or give an injection near the cervix to numb that part of the body.
To prevent pain
• give 500 to 1000 mg of paracetamol �����������������������by mouth,
20 minutes before
you start the MVA
or
• see page 424 for instructions on giving an injection to numb the cervix
Prepare tools and supplies for doing MVA
There are several different devices used to do MVA. In this chapter, we explain
how to use an MVA kit made by an organization named Ipas. (See page 499 to
find out how to purchase MVA kits.)
MVA kits have 2 main parts:
One part is a 50 cc syringe with a wide
opening that creates a vacuum to pull the
contents of the womb out.
plunger
barrel
button
(pinch valve)
opens and
closes valve
The other main part of the kit is a set of
plastic tubes called cannulas. One end
of the cannula will be attached to the
syringe. The other end will be put
inside the
womb.
syringe
arm of
plunger
cannulas
How the syringe works
When the button on the syringe is pushed in, the valve is opened and the
contents of the womb are sucked through
the cannula into the syringe.
syringe
cannula
420
A Book for Midwives (2010)