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Quantifying Maternal Blood Loss in Vaginal Birth

Progress Report 7 – March 12th 2019

  1. Previous goals from project assignment:
    • Characterize chemical properties of Hemastix
    • Entertain alternative solutions if Gelmax does not work
    • Develop prototype shape
  2. What we did to accomplish these goals:
    • The Hemastix was tested at several blood concentrations by volume from 2.5% blood to 100% blood. Pure water was also as a sample to test the chemical response of Hemastix. By dipping the Hemastix at various concentration levels of blood, we generated a better idea of how Hemastix responds.
    • Developed a more advanced design for the basin. The basin now will include an inner flow cone allowing all fluids to flow to the very edges of the basin. The flow cone will be coated in a hydrophobic spray so that all the liquid will flow away.
  3. What went wrong; what we need help on; what we did not accomplish:
    • The Hemastix experiments showed that it is not a viable option to detect blood concentrations at such large volumes. At the lowest concentration tested, 2.5%, the Hemastix was fully saturated. Even with no blood present, the Hemastix showed signs of blood. We determined that the Hemastix could not be used for our application since it doesn’t show us changes in blood concentrations in the ranges we are looking at.
  4. How we can fix errors; how we can accomplish unfinished goals:
    • Determine another way to quantify blood. Potentially understand chemical properties of Gelmax.
  5. Additional goals for next week; how we’re going to accomplish them:
    • Since Hemastix failed, we need a new method of quantifying blood. A concentration back calculation will no longer work since we don’t have a visual metric that returns blood concentration.