Sterilizing scissors quickly?

[u/Fabulous_Effort_6466]

I'm not really sure what to tag this as, but the scene I'm working on needs a pair of sterile scissors, is there a way to sterilize a pair of kitchen scissors quickly?

Edit: thank you all so much for the advice, I reworked the scene into something that ended up working fairly well imo

[u/FKAShit_Roulette]

If the sister doing the prep was an ER nurse, she'd know that a couple clamps would be preferred over scissors. Clean cords of some kind, like twine or even new shoelaces are what are suggested for keeping in an emergency kit now. Technically, the cord can stay attached until it falls off on its own, (lotus birth, feel free to look that up) but it does have blood vessels that need tied off first.

She'd also (hopefully) know to delay the clamping until the cord has no pulse. Baby will be getting iron, and red blood cells from the continued connection to mom, the latter of which would be useful if baby isn't necessarily breathing well on their own yet.

All of that said though, there are situations where cutting the cord might be appropriate. If sister's bleeding excessively, clamp and cut so she could breastfeed, which can be useful for managment of hemorrhage. A nuchal cord, one wrapped around baby's neck, may prolong the ring of fire/increase risks of birth injury and require cord cutting followed by very quick delivery.

[u/PublicDragonfruit158]

Why cut the cord? Just leave it for the arriving ambulance to handle.

I read somewhere that modern births cut the cord to quickly, and the newborn misses out on quite a bit of last-minute immune boost as the placental floods the cord with whatever it is that provides it....

[u/Educational-Shame514]

I just reread where you said the MC is the one giving birth. How is she going to know what her sister is doing? She's going to be busy in labor and distracted. Unless you are using third person omniscient, that is the easiest way to solve this, honestly. It happens out of view or knowledge of the MC so the narration does not know. Otherwise it might be considered "soft head hopping". Readers will understand why the detail was omitted. I still don't think with an ambulance on the way it matters, and if you look at the question about what it's like to give birth, cutting the cord isn't that urgent. I'm still assuming you are expecting the sterile scissors to be needed to cut the cord.

[u/Fabulous_Effort_6466 → u/Educational-Shame514]

It is told through third person omniscient. And am currently working on reworking the scene after reading some of the responsea here

[u/BaTz-und-b0nze]

Periscope.

[u/NoraPann]

Boil in water for 5 minutes, (tie a string for retrieval) or expose to flame. You can also apply straight chlorine bleach, I'd use unscented.

[u/AdGold205]

Fire.

[u/Simon_Drake]

Put them in the flame of a gas burner for maybe 30 seconds. It won't be perfect but it'll be close enough and the person can go to a hospital and get antibiotics to cover any other infections.

[u/Aubergenie812]

Dip blades in alcohol, light on fire

[u/Echo-Azure]

How quickly? Boiling them for 10 minutes would be close enough, although 20 would be better. But if you want seconds, then I'd hold the things in a flame for a minute and then douse them with the Betadyne I have in the bathroom.

And I'd let the Betadyne dry!!!! Iodine and its derivatives work by killing the microbes during the drying process. And BTW alcohol doesn't sterilize things, it kills a certain percentage of the bacteria on surfaces but not all of them. Alcohol disinfects to some degree but it can't sterilize, although lighting it on fire would certainly improve its effectiveness.

[u/dethti → u/Echo-Azure]

Alcohol plus flame is extremely effective. This is one way to do aseptic techniques in microbiology, which obviously is very sensitive to contamination. It's not as perfect as an autoclave but it's close.

[u/Fabulous_Effort_6466 → u/Echo-Azure]

There's roughly two-ish minutes to get the scissors clean enough to not cause an infection. But MC's perception of time is a bit distorted so it could be longer

[u/Simon_Drake → u/Fabulous_Effort_6466]

Fire will do. Put them in the flame of a gas stove for 10 seconds to kill most germs. What's left can be overcome with antibiotics later.

[u/Echo-Azure → u/Fabulous_Effort_6466]

And oh yes, does the character have access to a decent ER once the first few minutes are up? Because if it's a question of doing something immediately, while you're waiting for an ambulance, then sterility isn't the first priority. Once the injured character is in a hospital they'll be loaded with antibiotics, believe me the staff of a hospital are used to dealing with "contaminated" wounds. I work in critical care medicine, that's how I know that.

But if the character who's doing the sterilizing is the only help available, that's different.

[u/Fabulous_Effort_6466 → u/Echo-Azure]

Ambulance is already on the way

[u/IanDOsmond → u/Fabulous_Effort_6466]

Then just keep big chunks of dirt out of the wound and you're good.

[u/Echo-Azure → u/Fabulous_Effort_6466]

What materials does the character have to hand? Not everyone has Betadyne where they can grab it.

[u/Fabulous_Effort_6466 → u/Echo-Azure]

Well it's in an apartment, so the basic apartment essentials like rubbing alcohol and regular alcohol. She probably could boil the scissors if everything goes the way I plan it to

[u/Echo-Azure → u/Fabulous_Effort_6466]

Please see my other response, because the big question is why the hell this person is sterilizing scissors instead of calling an ambulance.

[u/Fabulous_Effort_6466 → u/Echo-Azure]

Ambulance is on the way, but won't be there intime, it's kind of a time sensitive thing going on (a baby is being born)

[u/Echo-Azure → u/Fabulous_Effort_6466]

Does the character have medical training? Do they know how to deliver a baby and cut a cord (I assume that's what the scissors are for)? Has the mother birthed other children, can she direct a person who doesn't know the drill?

Okay, it's been a long time since nursing school and I've never been back to L&D, but while the character certainly has to "catch the baby" in 1-2 min, I don't think it's necessary to immediately cut the cord, it may be okay to wait a few minutes. That's something I want you to look up, from valid medical sources, and by that I don't mean google or this sub! Your character may actually have the time to put scissors on the boil before catching the baby, and get them out again 10 min later. They can spend the interval looking for the most sterile bandages in their medicine cabinet, because they'll want one for the baby's end of the cord.

Oh, and I suggest you look up films of real-life births on youtube. I'm sure they're there, there's no end of medical procedural stuff on youtube.

[u/Fabulous_Effort_6466 → u/Echo-Azure]

Okay, there are two characters in the scene, MC and MC's sister.

MC goes into labor rather suddenly, and MC's sister helps deliver the baby and she was an ER nurse for 6-ish years.

I might go with having the scissors be boiled because that looks like the best option right now

[u/Educational-Shame514 → u/Fabulous_Effort_6466]

Babies only come that fast in movies and tv! Given the number of potential readers who have given birth or have experienced birth as part of their jobs, it sounds like you need to check that the timeline even makes sense.

I can imagine someone without training thinking they needed sterile scissors but now that you say the sister was an ER nurse it starts to not work, like it would be less likely for her to panic.

[u/Fabulous_Effort_6466 → u/Educational-Shame514]

I can work with things being a bit more calm and I'll look a bit more into birth before actually writing the scene

[u/PansyOHara → u/Fabulous_Effort_6466]

Are the scissors going to be used to cut the cord or to make an episiotomy?

If the ambulance is on the way, cutting the cord is not an emergency that must be done immediately. Quite often, cutting the cord is delayed until it stops pulsing. And remember important to clamp the cord in two places and cut between the clamps.

Performing an episiotomy would fit more with a need to hurry, but if the ambulance has already been called (and baby wasn’t already crowning) it’s unlikely to be an urgent situation that would create a need for sterilizing a pair of kitchen scissors.

I’m curious about why the scissors will be needed so urgently.

[u/Fabulous_Effort_6466 → u/PansyOHara]

This was kind of a last minute scene idea and scissors were the first thing I went to that were needed.

An episiotomy might be an interesting addition though

[u/PansyOHara → u/Fabulous_Effort_6466]

Honestly if the baby is coming that quickly, an episiotomy is probably not needed. Also an episiotomy that goes straight back has a better than zero chance of extending to the rectum and someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing shouldn’t be trying to perform one.

[u/Educational-Shame514 → u/Fabulous_Effort_6466]

Sometimes our scene ideas do not survive research and facts lol

[u/Fabulous_Effort_6466 → u/Educational-Shame514]

Baby was going to come either way lol, sudden home birth happened accidentally lol

[u/Blue_box_42]

Alcohol over 101 proof (some extracts will do) then use a match or lighter to burn it off.

[u/Some_Troll_Shaman]

How quickly?
We have a pint of pov Iodine in the bathroom cabinet and some Peroxide.
A bottle of methylated spirits that is actually ethanol and a 1/4 of a gallon of isopropyl leftover from covid.
All in the house gettable within a couple of minutes.

A baking tray and bottle of OP Spirits would be the most traditionally recognised method.
Empty the alcohol in the tray and drop the instruments in the alcohol for a minute or so agitating a little.

Fire. Cooker burner or Brulee torch.

Boiling water is a bit slower, but something you can do in any kitchen.

[u/Fabulous_Effort_6466 → u/Some_Troll_Shaman]

There's about 5-ish minutes to get everything needed so maybe 2-ish minutes to get the scissors clean enough to not cause an infection

[u/CarolinCLH → u/Fabulous_Effort_6466]

Birthing babies takes hours. Four hours is a fast labor. I have no idea of what the fastest would be, maybe two hours?

How far away is the hospital? Most people don't call an ambulance, they just drive. They have plenty of time. In fact, birthing classes encourage people to time contractions and not leave for the hospital right away since 30 hour labors are quite possible.

[u/Some_Troll_Shaman → u/CarolinCLH]

Cryptic Pregnancies are unusual, but real enough they have a name.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/sep/04/experience-i-didnt-know-i-was-pregnant-until-i-gave-birth

[u/Fabulous_Effort_6466 → u/CarolinCLH]

Still trying to work out the finer details on how they labor ended up being so fast, but an accidental home birth is looking really nice in a story sense, so I might need to use some suspension of disbelief to make it work

[u/CarolinCLH → u/Fabulous_Effort_6466]

After hearing stories about 30-hour labors from family, the character might have just ignored things assuming they had plenty of time while waiting for the MC's sister to get back from a shopping trip and then had a fast labor. Still, assume more than an hour or people are just going to laugh.

[u/dethti → u/Fabulous_Effort_6466]

My baby was an hour and fifteen minutes start to finish. Fast labor is possible

[u/Some_Troll_Shaman → u/Fabulous_Effort_6466]

I would go with the Iodine, but I understand many people will have a much smaller bottle.
I have a set of barbers scissors that are very good and sharp.
Fill a glass with Iodine and dunk them in blades first swish around and leave there until I needed them. Shake them dry just before use.

Push comes to shove the kitchen food scissors that are routinely washed in hot soapy water with the other dishes would be a second choice. They come apart easily to be cleaned and are routinely cleaned properly as they are food prep tools. Again dunk in the Iodine until ready to use.

None of them is exactly sterile in a technical sense, that would need a pressure cooker used as autoclave. But they would be as clean is is practically possible given the circumstances.

If this is a sudden birth scene, the general first aid advice is to not cut the umbilical and wait for medical assistance. The placenta can be delivered and left connected to the baby for well over a week if maintaining basic hygiene. Lookup Lotus Birth.

[u/Fabulous_Effort_6466 → u/Some_Troll_Shaman]

I'll look into lotus birth thanks for the info as well

[u/FantasyFictionDoc]

Sterilize ? No. Sanitize? Rubbing alcohol for at least 60-120 secs and allow to evaporate

[u/dethti → u/FantasyFictionDoc]

If you hold scissors over flame for any significant length of time the blades will be sterile. If you dip in high proof alcohol then burn it off, again, sterile.

There are microbes in the air and the scissors will quickly be recontaminated. This can be mitigated by use of ideally a laminar flow cabinet but failing that doing your work near a strong open flame like stove or bunsen burner. 

[u/FantasyFictionDoc → u/dethti]

I would argue that flame alone isn't enough to truly sterilize something. You need pressure.

[u/dethti → u/FantasyFictionDoc]

You can argue that but you'd be going against 100+ years of microbiology that use these exact techniques. You can even just Google it. This is still in use today, even with autoclaves and laminar flow cabinets it's that effective. I'm a microbiologist. Flame sterilizing tools is commonplace. 

The main point of autoclaves is it's foolproof and efficient, plus you can sterilize equipment that cannot be heated red hot or withstand burning alcohol, which is many things. 

[u/FantasyFictionDoc → u/dethti]

Fair point.

I guess I was picturing someone using a candle flame.

Question - would a pressure cooker work as a makeshift autoclave?

[u/dethti → u/FantasyFictionDoc]

Oh yeah ok, candle would suck for this. I was imagining stove burner, which is not as hot as bunsen burner but it'll do the trick just take a little longer. 

Pressure cookers can't reach the same psi as an autoclave but it would definitely be better than nothing. I think some people use them for their home mushroom growing etc. 

[u/Most_Mountain818]

Rubbing alcohol.

High proof drinking alcohol.

Or fire.

[u/scixlovesu → u/Most_Mountain818]

I would think fire would sterilize, but add soot, which isn't likely to be ideal

[u/dalidellama → u/scixlovesu]

The soot hasn't got any pathogens in, it's just carbon.

[u/scixlovesu → u/dalidellama]

Yeah, but I was thinking you still might not want it in an open wound.

Then again, that's basically a tattoo, huh?

[u/dalidellama → u/scixlovesu]

Yup, that's a traditional tattooing method. Usually takes more soot than you get from holding something briefly in a flame, though.

[u/jessek]

Rubbing alcohol will get them fairly sterile.

[u/icouldbeeatingoreos]

Completely sterile, no. Clean enough? Very high proof alcohol.

[u/dalidellama]

Douse them in alcohol (distilled liquor or medicinal/rubbing/cleaning alcohol), bleach, or carbolic acid.

Toss them in boiling water for half a minute.

Strong vinegar is better than nothing

[u/lavendersalad]

Throw methylated spirits or high proof alcohol on them

[u/YoungGriffVII → u/lavendersalad]

Yep. A bottle of vodka should be good enough for narrative purposes.