Midwife told me to reuse urine pot due to shortages

[igotbills]

Has anyone else been told this? I was given a pot to takeaway from my booking appointment with the instructions to sterilise at home and reuse when I need to bring in future urine samples.

I may be a bit embarrassed as it's my first pregnancy but it also has to be first morning urine meaning it's going to look dehydrated when I pass it over (sorry for that image) but is this something you just get over? 🤣

And I suppose they just empty it and pass it back for me to pop in my handbag!

Think yourself lucky you only have the empty pot to put in your handbag-when I was pregnant they would dip the sample and give you the pot of piss pack to dispose of as they had nowhere to dispose of it in the rooms at the surgery 😩

Indeed! Imagine having to bring it to work with you and having a bag check or something

Yes - so long at its clean it can be reused.

Oh my!! I really hope that isn't the norm

Take a bag to put it in. 🤷‍♀️

You think they should clean them at the hospital and reuse?

it’s your own urine - just wash it yourself

Too time consuming & would then need to be made with more plastic to make them more robust.

hopefully in a few months time putting a container had wee in it in your bag (in a bag) will be the least of your problems regarding wee & shock horror poi.

I don’t think this is a new thing. My youngest is 21 and with all of mine, I was given one pot for the whole pregnancy.

I guess this is what I'll do, I just wonder why they can't be sterilised and reused in hospitals instead of being made to take it with you

When I was pumping milk for my daughter in NNiCU, they had sterifeed bottles they gave us for taking milk back and forth. They used to just throw them away after they’d used them. I asked them not to as it seemed so wasteful. They said they are single use and can’t be reused, wouldn’t last etc. I put a bag at her bedside and said to put them in there for me. I used them all through NNICU. 16 years later, I still have them and use them regularly.

The logistics of this wouldn’t be practical
there’d have to be systems in place ,staff,machinery, a way of collecting them ,storing them ,the redistribution
it would cost more than buying new ones not to mention the environmental impact

Autoclaves aren’t designed to sterilise these items. Plastic doesn’t do well in them.

... its just wee. Trust me after you've given birth there is worst to come...wee, poo, sick snot.... gotta say it takes a lot to gross me out now.

Just wash it between uses.

I work as a community nurse and ask patients to save a urine sample in any pot that is clean and you don’t mind throwing away/ re using for urine samples.
many people have a designated pot! Some people use old food container etc! Sometimes people can’t pee on demand and feel less pressure having a sample saved for us to collect and send off. We then transfer the urine into the correct container to be sent to the lab for testing.

I bought a job lot from Amazon.

Seems ridiculous to me. Always women expected to bear the burden. I can’t imagine men would waste their time washing a urine pot but women are just expected to add it on the to do list.

Do you really think that is a better thing to do? - it is your urine, your pot- cleaning it yourself will take seconds. I am surprised that a second hand pot- sterilised or otherwise is your preferred option just so you don't have to clean yours. Also think of the cost- it is not just pregnant woman that have to pee into a pot.

Thank you for the helpful messages :)
To those explaining how things can and can't be sterilised at hospitals etc I've learned something new today. And to the few others who described how they handled this themselves

To all the condescending whatnots, I hope you're just like this online because there's no need to be rude when someone is just asking a question

I didn’t have this during my pregnancy but can see the benefits. We had paper mache pots. Similar to the sick bowls but very small. Single use and then throw.

To be honest the further you get in pregnancy, you'll struggle to get it in those pots and half of it will be on your hands, so a used pot in your bag will be nothing lol

Because urine is sterile @igotbills so the pots don't need to be disinfected.

I did this didn’t even wash it with soap, shoved it down the loo quick rinse with water then reused it 😂😂

When I had my first 33 years ago, we were given a pot to reuse. The midwife used to empty and rinse it and give it back. The same with my second 30 years ago.

The midwife told me the pot needs disinfecting (at home)

Yes - this is normal. The sample doesn’t need to be sterile so they’ll rinse it out and give it back to you. Urine isn’t unclean and isn’t particularly smelly when it’s fresh. You’ll get used to it!