Reply to Why just clear liquids during labor

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm married to an anesthesiologist and the no-foods rule is not a joke.  It can be extremely dangerous to perform surgery on someone with a full-stomach (and that's defined as having anything other than water for the last 8 hours).  Pregnant women are especially prone to vomiting, and the risk of aspiration (vomit entering the lungs) is high and can be extremely dangerous, even fatal.  [/quote]

Tell your husband to look at the research on this.  the risk of aspiration is the same regardless of whether or not the patient has eaten.[/quote]

Yes, you're right.  My husband trained at Johns Hopkins.  I hear they are totally out-of-date at that fogey old institution.  Why on earth would they recommend a medical precaution that a DCUM says is antiquated?

Snark aside, I'll do my best to defend the practice to the best of my non-medically-trained understanding.  It's a question of risk-calculus.  Often times a surgery will be delayed if a patient has eaten.  However, if a patient has a full stomach requires emergency surgery, such as after a trauma, it is significantly more risky to delay surgery than to wait for the food to digest.  Anesthesiologists must perform a different assessment of the airway and the method of induction for a full-stomach patient, and sometimes that may method be contraindicated by other characteristics of the patient.  Pregnant patients are more likely to vomit and to aspirate than non-pregnant patients.  When you weigh the risks, forgoing a plate of spaghetti while laboring is certainly less burdensome than the risk of developing a severe lung infection or death in the event you aspirate on the table, no?  [/quote]

Seriously, read the research on this.  You are wrong.  Most midwives practice evidence based medicine (unlike most hospitals and OBs) and encourage you to eat during labor (if you want to).[/quote]

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