You've probably heard that once you are admitted in labor, there will be nothing by mouth, with the good ol' standby exception of ice chips. While most women will reach a point in their labors where food and drink are the furthest things from their minds, there are some that don't, and even the majority may find that it takes time to get to that point. So what gives? Is it really that important for a laboring woman not to have food or drink during her labor? A new systemic review of the evidence says eat, drink, and be a mommy.
In labor, a Snack, or a Sip?
By RONI CARYN RABIN
Published: January 25, 2010
Maternity wards have long forbidden women in labor to eat or drink. Even when labor goes on and on, the bill of fare is usually limited to ice chips.
Now a systematic review of existing studies has found no evidence that the restrictions have any benefit for most healthy women and their babies.
The prohibitions are meant to reduce the risk of Mendelson’s syndrome (named for Dr. Curtis L. Mendelson, the New York obstetrician who first described it in the 1940s), which can occur if the contents of the stomach are drawn into the lungs while the patient is under general anesthesia.
While rare, the syndrome can be fatal. But nowadays the use of general anesthesia during labor and delivery is also rare. Caesarean sections are generally done using regional anesthesia.
“My own view of this has always been that you could say one shouldn’t eat or drink anything before getting into a car on the same basis, because you could be in an automobile accident and you might require general anesthesia,” said Dr. Marcie Richardson, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates in Boston, who was not connected to the new study.
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where Dr. Richardson delivers, estimates that just 1 to 2 percent of women in labor are given general anesthesia."
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