Opinions changing about eating and drinking during labor

January 21, 2010 by Shawn Douglas
Filed under: News, Pregnancy

Opinions are changing about whether of not it is safe for a woman to eat and drink during labor.

As anesthesia practices during labor have changed, so have the opinions of doctors about the safety of eating and drinking during labor.

Concerns of respiratory ailments caused by regurgitating food and inhaling food particles into the lungs (known as Mendelson’s syndrome) while under general anesthesia have left doctors advising against the consumption of food or liquid during labor. But with the shift to safer, regional anesthesia, researchers are reconsidering those restrictions.

Dr. Jeffrey Ecker, an obstetrician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, told WebMD: “We are, as we speak, in the process of re-evaluating our practice, as I believe other hospitals are. We are trying to find a balance between what makes patients happy and comfortable and what makes the anesthesiologist comfortable.”

A recently published review of related research by the Cochrane Collaboration, an international not-for-profit organization that analyzes and distributes information about medical research, has concluded that “women should be able to make their own decisions” when it comes to eating and drinking during labor.

The research team reviewed five different studies involving 3,130 pregnant women, following them through childbirth. All women were considered to have a low risk of requiring general anesthesia during labor. The team found little to no evidence that choosing whether or not to consume food or liquids had any disadvantage or benefit.

Dr. Mandisa Singata, a study author from South Africa’s East London Hospital Complex, said in a press release: “Since the evidence shows no benefit or harms, there is no justification for [the prohibition of eating or drinking] during labor, provided women have a low risk for complications. Women should be able to make their own decisions about whether they want to eat or drink during labor or not.”

A slow shift towards this policy was seen in August 2009 when the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists changed their stance to allow for “modest amounts” of liquids such as water, tea, juice, coffee or carbonated beverages. Yet, the group still holds firm on the policy of not eating during labor.

“Allowing laboring women more than a plastic cup of ice is going to be welcome news for many,” said Dr. William H. Barth, Jr., also of Massachusetts General Hospital, in a press release last August. “As for the continued restriction on food, the reality is that eating is the last thing most women are going to want to do since nausea and vomiting during labor is quite common.”

The research team of the Cochran Collaboration agrees that eating may not be comfortable for many women during labor, but the team recognized that some women do have the desire to eat and found little to prevent them from doing so.

The team also noted that they could not find any research specifically aimed at women who had higher risks of requiring general anesthesia, suggesting that more research needed to be conducted on that group before conclusions could be drawn.