Why just clear liquids during labor

[Anonymous]

Oooooo BURN

[Anonymous]

i agree that the definition of natural is extremely subjective and problematic, however you don't sound very nice. the whole "you don't get a medal" thing is so irritating! i didn't want a medal. i wanted to avoid interventions and the complications that can go along with them. i wanted a healthy baby and that is why i wanted to birth without an epidural and other intervention if possible. in my mind it's all connected -- the way the baby comes out, and the health of the baby. in my situation, avoiding intervention was possible and very healthy for the baby, and i also felt a sense of accomplishment at giving birth with no medication -- and i don't think there's anything wrong with that. it's not okay to be proud of something you wanted to achieve and achieved? i understand that not everyone wants to have a birth without drugs, and that not every circumstance or environment makes it possible, but when it is desired and possible, it can be pretty amazing. at least it was for me. i knew that intervention might be necessary, but i didn't want to have it done routinely or for no good reason. and breastfeeding for 13 months makes you a hippie? hmm.

Anonymous wrote:wow.

I'm an anesthesiologist, and I've had 5 kids, four by c-section.

Clear liquids, great! Food? You better be healthy, reasonably slim, with a normal labor pattern and a healthy baby. Yeah, midwives are great, but they pass all the sick patients to the OB docs, that's why everything's so "awesome" with midwives.

If you're sick, the baby's sick, or you're obese, you're at higher risk of emergency C-section. Your airway is swollen during pregnancy, 10x higher risk of complications during breathing tube placement for general anesthesia. You will become very ill, or die, if chunks of food or stomach acid end up in your lungs.

off topic, for all the "natural" childbirth fans-- being induced with drugs (pitocin, cytotec) is NOT natural. If you don't want an epidural, no problem, but going without painkillers is only part of the "natural" experience. No medals are awarded for drug-free vaginal delivery; we all just want healthy babies!

I breastfed all my kids until 13 months, no formula, so don't give me crap for having 4 medically necessary c-sections. I have some hippie cred!

[Anonymous]

you don't get a medal for being an anesthesiologist either, so maybe you shouldn't have become one?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:wow.

I'm an anesthesiologist, and I've had 5 kids, four by c-section.

Clear liquids, great! Food? You better be healthy, reasonably slim, with a normal labor pattern and a healthy baby. Yeah, midwives are great, but they pass all the sick patients to the OB docs, that's why everything's so "awesome" with midwives.

If you're sick, the baby's sick, or you're obese, you're at higher risk of emergency C-section. Your airway is swollen during pregnancy, 10x higher risk of complications during breathing tube placement for general anesthesia. You will become very ill, or die, if chunks of food or stomach acid end up in your lungs.

off topic, for all the "natural" childbirth fans-- being induced with drugs (pitocin, cytotec) is NOT natural. If you don't want an epidural, no problem, but going without painkillers is only part of the "natural" experience. No medals are awarded for drug-free vaginal delivery; we all just want healthy babies!

I breastfed all my kids until 13 months, no formula, so don't give me crap for having 4 medically necessary c-sections. I have some hippie cred!

This is quite the non-sensical, fear-mongering, nonsense. What sickness are you talking about, exactly? Whose airway might be swollen? 10x greater than what? And most importantly, if food and stomach acid alike can cause illness or death, why restrict food? What might actually be helpful in this conversation would be a review of the research, which shows that any aspiration at all occurs at about 10 in 1 million cases, and of those, only a very small fraction result in severe morbidity. Instead, you write a bunch of condescending nonsense about "natural" birthers. I wonder how often you - being an anesthesiologist and all - actually spend any time with women who are having an unmedicated childbirth. It also doesn't sound like you personally have very much (if any?) experience with low-interventive birth.

[Anonymous]

FOUR c-sections! oooooh. That's a distracting tidbit. That's a lot riskier than eating and drinking in labor.

[Anonymous]

I was unable to deliver my child because I didn’t eat during labor. I had a very long labor, thankfully was able to sleep because of an epidural but hadn’t eaten for 24 hours when I was going through transition. I started bonking and worried that if I tried to push I would faint (I have a history of fainting and know what I feel like when a fainting spell is impending). Meanwhile nurses and doctors were getting impatient because I had low-grade fever and they were worried about infection. I envisioned fainting during pushing and having myself and my baby brutally handled by forceps. I requested a Cesarean to avoid this fate. I feel confident that if I had been eating I would have been able to continue.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another benefit of only clear liquids is that you have a lower chance of pooping during labor.

Have you been in labor? Why on earth would I want to avoid pooping during labor more than I would want energy during labor? It's a crazy marathon physical experience. You need sustenenance.

Seriously, calm down and knock off the snarkiness.

No woman in America is going to not be able to deliver a child because she didn't eat during labor.

[Anonymous]

You will probably not be able to keep anything down anyway. I barfed the previous days food up while in labor. But go ahead and try. It’s worth a shot. Bone broth and popsicles are both considered clear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You will probably not be able to keep anything down anyway. I barfed the previous days food up while in labor. But go ahead and try. It’s worth a shot. Bone broth and popsicles are both considered clear.

Adding. I had an intense labor, 36+ hours and a few days of prodromal labor at home. I couldn’t keep anything down except water. I had two dinners and a gallon of water post delivery, no exaggeration.

[Anonymous]

I had relatively quick deliveries but labor for me feels like the flu. Stomach pains, shivering, sweat, vomit etc. No way I’d want to eat.

First child: water broke 4 am, contractions started 6 am, no medicines or interventions (I wanted them but didn’t receive any). Delivered at 10:15 - I’d been pushing a few hours. They worked on me for a few hours to try to get hemorrhaging to stop and to try to get my placenta out. After that I kept blacking out. Sometime around 2 pm I had apple juice and a milk shake and it was great! The prior time I remember being that hungry and thirsty was after a strenuous 8 hr hike.

Second child: water broke at 9 pm, epidural at 2 pm, delivered at 5 am so didn’t miss a meal anyway. I don’t remember for sure, but I think they gave me sips of apple juice. They also but fluids in my IV (as well as medication to prevent vomiting and to limit hemorrhaging). With the epidural I fell asleep and slept through some major contractions and woke up to push for 5 minutes.

[Anonymous]

You’ll be in so much pain you won’t want to eat. You’re thinking of marathon as akin to a physical feat, like running a marathon. It’s really not like that at all. It’s more like surviving the worst bout of food poisoning you’ve ever had and trying to relax and deep breathe while your body acts in ways you’ve never experienced and you’re enduring extreme pain (that is, if you don’t get an epidural).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:wow.

I'm an anesthesiologist, and I've had 5 kids, four by c-section.

Clear liquids, great! Food? You better be healthy, reasonably slim, with a normal labor pattern and a healthy baby. Yeah, midwives are great, but they pass all the sick patients to the OB docs, that's why everything's so "awesome" with midwives.

If you're sick, the baby's sick, or you're obese, you're at higher risk of emergency C-section. Your airway is swollen during pregnancy, 10x higher risk of complications during breathing tube placement for general anesthesia. You will become very ill, or die, if chunks of food or stomach acid end up in your lungs.

off topic, for all the "natural" childbirth fans-- being induced with drugs (pitocin, cytotec) is NOT natural. If you don't want an epidural, no problem, but going without painkillers is only part of the "natural" experience. No medals are awarded for drug-free vaginal delivery; we all just want healthy babies!

I breastfed all my kids until 13 months, no formula, so don't give me crap for having 4 medically necessary c-sections. I have some hippie cred!

Ugh, I hate this shit. What's your problem? Why do you insist on lumping women into defined categories ("hippie cred") as though people who get c-sections don't also breastfeed? Huh?

FWIW, I went unmedicated because I was afraid of the side effects of the epidural. It had nothing to do with getting a medal or some intrinsic valuing of things "natural." I combo fed - probably 90% formula and gave up breastfeeding entirely at four months. I know this is just anecdotal, but it just seems like there are so many assumptions in this post that aren't necessary. And why do you even care if women choose to go unmedicated?

[Anonymous]

Question for people who were induced. How did you handle food?

My understanding is induction takes way longer in the hospital than labor that comes on spontaneously bc with spontaneous labor your dont arrive at hospital until after water has broken and therefor can eat a wider array of calories closer to delivery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know if Wisdom care if you eat during labor?

Wisdom takes the "eat whatever you'd like to eat" approach.

I had a bagel with cream cheese, a milkshake and Diet Coke during my 30 hr labor back in 2014.

[Anonymous]

At inova Alexandria they offered me snacks. But honestly with all 3 kids I didn’t want to eat. I mean, it was like food didn’t even exist. They offered me something and I was like, get that crap out of my sight immediately. No. Thank. You.

But yeah it helps not to go to the hospital until you’re in active labor.

Don’t be freaked out op it’s not as bad as it sounds (at least, the not eating part!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:wow.

I'm an anesthesiologist, and I've had 5 kids, four by c-section.

Clear liquids, great! Food? You better be healthy, reasonably slim, with a normal labor pattern and a healthy baby. Yeah, midwives are great, but they pass all the sick patients to the OB docs, that's why everything's so "awesome" with midwives.

If you're sick, the baby's sick, or you're obese, you're at higher risk of emergency C-section. Your airway is swollen during pregnancy, 10x higher risk of complications during breathing tube placement for general anesthesia. You will become very ill, or die, if chunks of food or stomach acid end up in your lungs.

off topic, for all the "natural" childbirth fans-- being induced with drugs (pitocin, cytotec) is NOT natural. If you don't want an epidural, no problem, but going without painkillers is only part of the "natural" experience. No medals are awarded for drug-free vaginal delivery; we all just want healthy babies!

I breastfed all my kids until 13 months, no formula, so don't give me crap for having 4 medically necessary c-sections. I have some hippie cred!

This post is so weird. I had 2 natural child births in a hospital with midwives. They started an IV line (just in case) but I wasn’t hooked up to an IV and I could move around freely. I ate a little bit of snacks during my first labor but nothing the second time around - baby came quickly. I preferred to have a natural birth because I didn’t want major abdominal surgery and all the risks that come with it. However, the reason I delivered in a hospital is because wanted the option of a C-section if it became medically necessary.

I think it’s beyond strange that you equate preferring to avoid surgery with being a hippie.

Also, I have had surgery before, I know what anesthesia is like and my body does not respond well to it. I definitely didn’t want to deal with the side effects while caring for a newborn if I could help it. I guess to you that makes me an anti-science hippie for only having medically necessary surgeries.