THE PREPARATION OF THE SUPPLIES
1. The sanitary pad is used to absorb the lochia after confinement, and needs to be changed many times during the day and night; fully five or six dozen will be required. They are usually made from cotton batting and a generous layer of absorbent cotton. If made entirely from absorbent cotton they mat down into a rope-like condition. They are four and one-half to five inches wide and ten inches long. The sterile cheesecloth is cut large enough to wrap around the cotton filling and extends at both ends three inches, by which it is fastened to the abdominal binder. With a dozen or fifteen in each package these vulva pads are wrapped loosely in pieces of old sheets and pinned securely and marked plainly on the outside.
2. Delivery pads. These pads should be thirty-six inches square and about five inches thick, three or four inches of which may be the cotton batting and the remainder absorbent cotton. Three of these are needed. Each should be folded, wrapped in a piece of cloth and likewise marked.
3. Gauze squares. Five dozen gauze squares about four inches in size may be cut, wrapped and marked. These are needed for the nipples, baby's eyes, etc.
Fig. 5. Breast Binder.
4. Cotton pledgets. These are cotton balls, made as you would a light biscuit with the twist of the cotton to hold it in shape. They should be about the size of the bottom of a teacup. These are thrown in a couple of pillow slips and wrapped and marked.
5. The Bobbin. Cut the bobbin or tape into four nine-inch lengths and wrap and mark.
6. The tooth picks are left in the original package and do not require sterilization.
7. Sterilization. Before steaming and baking, wrap each bundle in another wrapping of cloth and pin again securely. Mark each package plainly in large letters or initials. These packages may be sent to the hospital for sterilization in the autoclave or they may be steamed for one hour in the large wash boiler, by placing them loosely into a hammock-like arrangement made by suspending a firm piece of muslin from one handle of the boiler to the other. The center of the hammock should come to within five inches of the bottom of the boiler which contains three inches of boiling water. The cover of the boiler is now securely weighed down and the water boils hard for one hour, at the end of which time they are removed and placed in a warm oven to dry out. The outer wrapping may be slightly tinged with brown by this baking. After a thorough drying they are allowed to remain in the same wrappings into which they were first placed and put away in a clean drawer awaiting the "Natal Day."