Pregnancy, Parenthood & Playtime

For a very long time, women have been encouraged not to eat while in labor, and once under hospital car, denied food until after the birth of their child and this became standard practice virtually all over The United States in the Obstetric model of care.
Well in recent days, a new study was released concluding that there is no evidence or benefit for low risk women to fast while they are in labor.

“Singata and colleagues systematically reviewed five studies involving more than 3100 pregnant that looked at the evidence for restricting food and drink in women who were considered unlikely to need anesthesia. One study looked at complete restriction versus giving women the freedom to eat and drink at will; two studies looked at water only versus giving women specific fluids and foods and two studies looked at water only versus giving women carbohydrate drinks.

The evidence showed no benefits or harms of restricting foods and fluids during labor in women at low risk of needing anesthesia.

Singata and colleagues acknowledge that many women may not feel like eating or drinking during labor. However, research has shown that some women find the food and drink restriction unpleasant. Poor nutritional balance may be also associated with longer and more painful labors. Drinking clear liquids in limited quantities has been found to bring comfort to women in labor and does not increase labor complications.

The researchers emphasize that they did not find any studies that assessed the risks of eating and drinking for women with a higher risk of needing anesthesia and so further research is need before specific recommendations can be made for this group.”

Which is something the midwife community, as well as the natural birth community has been saying just as long as the recommendation not to eat during labor has been common practice. And even some midwives who attend births in hospital settings under the Obstetric model of care actually encourage women to eat and drink as they desire while they are in labor.

Of course,  I do not blame any woman that doesn’t feel the need to eat, or does not need to eat while they are in labor either. Some of us have worse experiences with food and labor considering the large risk of vomiting while in labor. I can certainly say I was one of those women!

But just the fact that women now will be able to make their own choices and decisions in another aspect of their care is a huge development. Now we can only hope that hospitals will heed this advice and allow women to eat or drink as they please. I mean really, it is their body, labor, and care, they should be able to make their own choices!

Above Quote was taken from the Reuters news story on the Cochrane Study.