THE BLADDER

Categories: Obstetrics or Midwifery

If the patient is not able to pass urine it should be drawn
once in eight or twelve hours or oftener if required. A No.7 rubber

catheter is best. After it has been used, it should be sterilized by

boiling and then kept in a bichloride solution (1-2000). It should be

washed off with boiled water again before being used to remove the

bichloride solution and greased with sterile oil. The parts should be

exposed to pass the cathe er, the labia separated by the finger and thumb,

and the opening of the urethra and surrounding parts bathed clean with an

antiseptic solution; unless you are clean decomposing discharges from the

vagina may be introduced into the bladder and a cystitis set up. The care

of the bladder is very important. It is not so sensitive after the labor

and the woman may have urine when she does not think so. Sometimes she

passes a little after trying and then thinks there is no more in the

bladder. Even the attendants are deceived sometimes. I once had a case

where the mother was the nurse. At each visit I inquired as to the amount

of urine passed. I was told each time it was sufficient. She suffered

severely the second day in the evening. I went to see her and against the

protests of the mother I used the catheter and took away an enormous

quantity of urine. In such cases the bladder should be emptied slowly to

save the woman from shock.



A physician cannot always depend upon the patient's knowledge of her

condition even in such matters and sometimes even the nurse is at fault.