7 Trays in Labour Room: Essential Equipment and Usage: Fast-Track Guide to Understanding The 7 Key Trays in Labour Rooms

The labour room is a highly specialized environment where both the medical staff and expecting families rely on precision, preparedness, and safety. One of the critical components contributing to this ecosystem is the set of designated trays, each with a vital, purpose-specific array of instruments and disposables. These trays streamline the workflow, ensuring that obstetricians, nurses, and assistants have immediate access to everything required at each stage of labour and delivery. Here’s an in-depth look at the seven essential trays in the labour room, with insights on their usage and importance:

1. Delivery Tray
2. The delivery tray is the most frequently used tray and contains sterile instruments necessary for a safe and straightforward vaginal delivery. Items usually include artery forceps, scissors, needle holders, sterile drapes, cord clamps, and surgical gloves.
3. Episiotomy Tray
4. In some births, an episiotomy (a surgical incision made in the perineum) is performed to facilitate delivery. This tray is equipped with specialized scissors, suture materials, forceps, and antiseptics to ensure the procedure is performed quickly and safely.
5. Suturing Tray
6. Postpartum repairs such as perineal tears or episiotomy require precise stitching. The suturing tray includes needle holders, tissue forceps, suture material, and local anaesthetic supplies.
7. Neonatal Resuscitation Tray
8. A crucial tray in the event of newborn distress, it includes suction devices, face masks, Ambu bags, cord clamps, and essential medications for immediate resuscitation.
9. Instrument/Major Tray
10. For more complex or assisted deliveries, or when moving from normal to instrumental delivery, this tray holds forceps, vacuum extractors, retractors, and additional surgical instruments.
11. Observation and Monitoring Tray
12. This tray carries tools for vital sign observation and monitoring—sphygmomanometers, thermometers, stethoscopes, and charts for documenting progress.
13. Emergency/Crash Tray
14. In the rare case of a sudden maternal or neonatal emergency, having defibrillators, emergency drugs, IV cannulas, and airways in a dedicated tray ensures immediate response.

As a designer, whenever I evaluate the spatial and workflow challenges of a modern labour room, I focus on how the arrangement and accessibility of these trays affect efficiency and safety. A well-thought-out tray layout can minimize time lost searching for instruments, reduce cross-contamination risk, and ultimately improve patient outcomes. If you’re planning a new maternity wing or refurbishing an existing one, leveraging modern room planner tools enables you to visualize and optimize equipment stations, including tray placement, which is vital for both workflow and design harmony.

Tips 1:

Keep all trays covered and sterilized until needed—regular checks and restocking after each delivery are essential to maintain readiness. Consider ergonomic placement based on workflow studies to enhance both staff comfort and patient safety.

FAQ

Q: Why do labour rooms require so many trays?

A: Each tray is designed for a specific stage or potential event during labour and delivery, ensuring rapid, organized response and minimizing infection or error risks.

Q: Can trays be customized for different hospitals or birth centers?

A: Absolutely. Equipment content can be tailored to institutional protocols, local practice needs, and special circumstances like high-risk pregnancies or specialized neonatal care.

Q: What’s the role of a neonatal resuscitation tray?

A: It contains all immediate-response tools required if a newborn has breathing difficulties, ensuring no delay in critical interventions.

Q: How often should trays be checked or restocked?

A: After every delivery, all trays should be thoroughly checked, sterilized, and restocked. Regular audits are recommended as part of infection control protocols.

Q: How does tray placement influence workflow in the labour room?

A: Optimal tray placement, informed by spatial planning and workflow studies, speeds up emergency response, reduces staff fatigue, and enhances both patient and provider experience.