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!

I actually think it’s a really good idea.

Just take a plastic bag and put it in there in case it spills.

If they don’t tip it away, then do it yourself in the toilets and give it a rinse and then sterilise it when you get home.

I used to worry about handing my wee over - what if it’s darker or warmer than everyone else’s!!

But I promise once you’ve done it a couple of times and definitely after labour, you will not think anything of it.
You’ll be carrying it around like it’s the most normal thing in the world.

I did this and my dc are all aged 9+.
OP you are having a baby, there is going to be blood, sick, pee, poo and your waters and that’s just the birth. Time to get used to it!

Just use some sterilising fluid, £1 in Home Bargains.

(If you think a clean plastic pot is disgusting, just wait for the nappies 😁)

Take a plastic bag with you and put it in that to bring it home. Same when taking it in.

Never been a thing through 3 pregnancies in my trust we get a new bottle each time. Now the cardboard dishes to wee in they won't bloody give out and for some reason I can not pee if trying to do it straight into a bottle

I’m not doubting this is what you were told, just is uneccessary and does seem an unreasonable request, not least risk if you burning yourself while doing it! I would just rinse out with hot water, wouldn’t start using soaps etc which could chemically contaminate the next sample. Although to be quite honest I’d just say you’re uncomfortable with the whole thing and can you have a new pot each time and if they say they haven’t got any just buy some from your local chemist. My trust didn’t give pots at one time (not sure why as where I work we’ve got boxes of hundreds available all the time) so I just bought one for 50p from supermarket chemist section

Wee in a jug? That, too, can be sterilised afterwards.

This has come up a few times and it's a bit of a weird comment

If a stranger sneezes on me should say, 'it's okay, I'm used to it'

If someone farts next to me at work should I smile and say 'don't worry I'm a mum'

Just because my baby will pee, poo, vomit, sneeze, cough this doesn't mean I'm not allowed to be grossed out by things anymore

Yes you get used to your baby but I'll always judge someone who coughs into their hand uses that hand to press the bell on the bus

Men's urine is sterile. Women's urine is sterile most of the time. Men don't have... flaps... ifykwim. Without being TMI, there are a few ways women's urine can become no longer sterile.

There are little disposable yellow she wee type things that some hospital trusts have it ask for them, they screw onto the top of the bottle

You have a perfectly legitimate reason to be grossed out about putting a used, or full, urine bottle straight in to your handbag, however, putting either in a plastic bag can circumvent that problem, yes?

There will be public toilets to go in and clean it at the hospital. It’s not reasonable to expect patients to have to wait an extra day or two to be seen because of the additional time added onto each appointment to allow people to wash a pot immediately after it’s been checked by the midwife.

I think people are commenting more about you being worried about the colour of your wee, when pretty soon your bodily fluids are going to be everywhere when giving birth and it’ll be the least of your worries.

But all of these are regarding other people. This is about your own urine and your issue with it.

However in regards to putting the used pot straight back in my bag, still think it's grim

but you take the full/used pot to the midwife spot in your handbag? So how is it any different putting it back in your bag a minute after you’ve seen the midwife?

You could also chuck it down the loo at the hospital/gp surgery before you leave.

It's all about the plastic use I'm afraid. Although I recoiled a little bit when I saw there was a shortage of plastic sample pots. That's just insane to me. They're not expensive, but I guess procurement tends to go for the pots with the highest markup and there's nothing they can do about it because it's the supplier they've been told to use. Red tape for you! So far there has been a good supply of them at my trust. I still have one in my coat pocket for use next time I see the midwife. If they run out of them, I'll buy a job lot from Amazon and use those, probably.

The plastic won't hold up to the repeated boiling hot water rinses. Just use the hottest water you can bear from the boiler and thoroughly rinse with dishsoap. Better still, the hospital should stop running out of the damn things. I'm still tripping over that... wow.

It isn't different at all - but bringing full the pot is understandably unavoidable, taking the unwashed pot home is technically avoidable

This was done with all three of my pregnancies and my youngest is 23 now. It's nothing new and I think it is good and sensible to reuse as much as possible.

Just rinse it out with hot, soapy water at home and leave to air dry on the drainer. Absolutely no issue at all and it isn't grim. Just make sure the top is well secured and wrap it in a plastic food bag before putting it in your handbag.

I think this has been happening for years tbh. Definitely reusable pots in my last pregnancy ten years ago. They always tipped it out and gave a quick rinse / dry with a paper towel / lid back on before handing back. There were always spare pots in the loo or you can ask at reception.

"Local entitled woman wishes to not store stale unwashed piss pot in handbag, the horror!"

What’s your solution then?

This. Surely it's good to help save the NHS money and cut down on plastic waste. I used to use a mini glass pot years ago and always just stuffed it into a plastic bag and refused through entire pregnancy.

Yes I had this in both pregnancies. Sometimes I was given a paper drinking cup as they’d run out of the pots.