Labour Room Hollowares: A Midwifery Equipment Checklist
A labour room runs on two kinds of equipment: the monitoring and clinical devices that take up most of the budget discussion, and the stainless steel hollowares that every delivery uses — instrument boxes, trays, bowls, drums and basins. The second group is cheap per piece, easy to under-order and painful to run short of. This checklist covers the stainless side of a labour room or midwifery unit, and what to specify when buying it.
It is a procurement checklist, not a clinical one. Which instruments go into a delivery set, and how they are processed, is set by your own clinical protocol and national guidance.
The core midwifery items
- Midwifery box — a stainless steel box with a hinged cover and configurable compartments, for holding the instruments used in delivery care and sterilising them as a set. Ask for the internal dimensions and compartment layout, and check them against the instruments your delivery set actually contains.
- Foetal heart stethoscope — a simple, power-free foetal stethoscope for antenatal and labour-ward examination. Because it needs no batteries or charging, it also suits outreach and low-resource settings. Confirm the variant and material with us when you order.
Trays, bowls and basins
Each delivery bed draws on the same small group of vessels:
| Item | Typical role in the labour room |
|---|---|
| Instrument trays and covered surgical trays | Laying out and protecting the delivery set |
| Kidney trays | General-purpose receivers at the bedside |
| Gallipots | Small bowls for antiseptic, lotion and swabs |
| Catheter trays | A dedicated tray for the catheterisation set |
| Wash basin stand | A mobile hand-wash and scrub-up point |
| Bed pans | Bedside care before and after delivery |
Sterile supply
Dressings, pads and linen for the labour room are usually held in dressing drums — stainless drums with vented bands, used for autoclaving and then storing their contents. A labour room typically needs drums in more than one size, and enough of them to cover the drums in use, in processing and in storage at the same time. Our instrument reprocessing guide covers the wider sterile-supply set.
How many to order
Quantity is where labour-room orders most often go wrong. Work it out per delivery bed, not per room:
- Count delivery beds, then decide how many complete sets each bed needs to cover the time a set spends in processing. One set per bed is rarely enough.
- Write the set list — one midwifery box plus its trays, bowls and receivers — and multiply.
- Add a margin for loss and damage. Small items like gallipots go missing.
- Size the drums separately, against your linen and dressing turnover.
What to put in the purchase order
- Steel grade and gauge, in writing. These items are processed after every use.
- Box dimensions and compartments for the midwifery box, checked against your instrument list.
- Lids — confirm covered versus open for every tray line.
- A size matrix for trays, kidney trays, gallipots and drums.
- Finish — satin hides wear better in daily use.
Who orders it
Maternity and district hospitals equipping labour rooms, maternal-health and outreach programmes, midwifery and nursing schools setting up skills labs, and distributors supplying tenders. For programme and tender orders, one complete set list with a quantity per site is the fastest route to a usable quote.
For the general ward side of the range, see our ward hollowares guide.
Source direct
Optolab Zone manufactures and exports the full hospital hollowares range from Ambala, India. Send your set list, number of delivery beds and destination port, and we’ll quote with export terms. Request a quote or message us on WhatsApp.