Perineal Care

Perineal care is the treatment of the genital tract and the perineum during or after delivery, abortion, or surgery on the birth canal or perineum.

Objectives

• To maintain the cleanliness and comfort of the perineum and genital tract.
• To avoid both local and ascending infection.
• To keep the stitch clean and dry, and to aid in the healing process.
• To examine the quantity, color, odor, and consistency of the lochia.
• To assess the status of the perineum and stitches.

Articles required

A tray containing

• Sterile bowl – 1
• Artery forceps -1
• Thumb forceps – 1
• Dettol or antiseptic solution with gauze and cotton.
• Sterile kidney tray – 1
• Cheatle forceps with a jar
• Sterile drum containing sterile pad, cotton, and gauze.
• Perineal light.
• Tape measure
• Mackintosh/rubber sheet
• Bucket
• Screen
• Clean bedpan.

Procedure

• Before assembling the equipment, wash your hands.
• Keep the equipment by the bed or in the perineal care room.
• If a mother is able to go to the peri care room, invite her to come there; otherwise, care should be delivered at the bedside, thus screening the bed for privacy.
• Inform the woman about the necessity for perinatal care and the procedure.
• Recommend that the mother clean the vaginal area and empty her bladder in a toilet.
• If a mother is unable to walk, we must clean and supply a bedpan.
• Maintain the mother's dorsal recumbent position.
• Place a mackintosh and a bedpan under the buttock.
• Remove the pad, inspect the lochia for kind, quantity, color, and odor, and store it in a bucket.
• Hands should be washed with soap and water.
• Take the desired amount of cotton, sterile forceps, and sterile bowel and antiseptic solution from the sterile drum, while wearing sterile gloves.
• The left hand then separates the labia majora and minor and pours the labia minora into the major and final stitches. We can only use one cotton at a time.
• After cleaning, we must dry using the same way, with special emphasis on drying the stitch.
• Remove the bedpan and replace it with a vulval pad.
• Turn mother to the side and clean the buttock with sponge cloth or gauze piece in her right hand.
• Maintain a comfortable position for the mother.
• Please wash your hands.
• Consider fundal height.
• If the vulva is swollen and the stitches are unhealthy, use perineal light for 10-15 minutes at a distance of 12" (30cm) from the vulva to the light.
• Inform the mother about the stitch, lochia, and uterus involution conditions.
• Clean the equipment and replace it in its proper location.
• Correct recording and reporting