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Quantifying Maternal Blood Loss in Vaginal Birth

Progress Report 5 – February 12th, 2019

  • Previous goals from project assignment:
    • Finalize and exit ideation stage
    • Find blood components that are ideal for isolation and separation
    • Select a sensitive technique for blood detection
  • What we did to accomplish these goals:
    • After an extensive survey of the market, we have chosen a sodium polyacrylate based super-absorbent pad for our preliminary testing of blood loss quantification. The design of the pad offers several unique advantages. First, we predict that its absorption capabilities are well within the scalable volume of blood during postpartum hemorrhage. Additionally, its ability to essentially precipitate free liquid bypasses the need for extensive separation. If we can devise a way to quantify the blood to a threshold based on the physical properties of the pad, we can then approximate the total volume based on successive maximum absorptions.
    • We have considered several chemical and physical based separation techniques but each one seems difficult to carry out on a scalable level. Our research, fortunately shows, the level of blood loss is much greater than the amniotic fluid loss so after a certain time point, all of the fluid exiting the mother is presumed to be blood.
    • Selection of materials to just detect blood will allow us to construct a design that involves marking out known volumes and detecting when the blood reaches that level. The Hemastix urine analysis test contains a blood detection strip that may be a useful approach.
  • What went wrong; what we need help on; what we did not accomplish:
    • Our group proposes excellent ideas that often changes the course of our progress and takes us on tangents. We want to minimize the ideation at this point in the project and finalize one design. We thought about pivoting and limiting the scope of the project to just quantification instead of separation but the two tasks are so married that it makes sense to pursue both.
    • We are also having problems with selecting the appropriate size for our filter but that should become more clear when we begin experimentation with our super-absorbent pad.
    • We also need to be in contact more frequently with Dr. Schorn so that we can get the final go-ahead on the implementation of a new idea.
  • How we can fix errors; how we can accomplish unfinished goals:
    • Even if we are unable to meet with Dr. Schorn regularly, we want to make sure to send her email updates and ask directed questions.
    • We will finalize a design by the end of this week and begin basic experiments on absorption and saturation.
  • Additional goals for next week; how we’re going to accomplish them:
    • Find real blood for more directed testing
      • Contact VUMC lab or a butcher shop
    • Begin with water or another common liquid
    • Test various standard sizes of super-absorbent pad material and generate linear curve for absorbed volume vs. size.