Be Healthy

Nothing by mouth There’s no medical nor scientific rationale for starving a woman during labor-in fact, quite the opposite. Sometimes a laboring woman has a sudden need for energy and wants sugar. Other women don’t feel like eating anything, but they certainly need fluids; labor is hard work and uses up lots of energy, which causes sweating, and a woman must replace the fluids that she’s lost through her skin. That said, if there’s a high risk of a woman having an emergency cesarean, it’s safer to give anesthetic on an empty stomach.

Switching rooms In most hospitals, you should be able to labor and deliver your baby in the same room, without having to move. Depending on the hospital, you may need to be moved to an operating room if vou have to have an emergency cesarean. Otherwise, you should have peaceful surroundings, in a room  equipped with good lighting, oxygen, and a suction apparatus to clear out the baby’s air passages.

Induction Starting labor artificially isn’t a new idea, but it only became an easy procedure in the second half of the twentieth century. Labor should only be induced for medical reasons such as preeclampsia, high blood pressure, or post-maturity, when induction can save the lives of mothers and babies.

Amniotomy This means that the membranes (the bag of waters) surrounding the baby are artificially ruptured. It’s not a routine procedure and is generally only done early in labor if the baby’s heart rate is abnormal. Amniotomy is done for three reasons. The first is so that electronic fetal monitoring equipment can be set in place; the second is to check if the amniotic fluid contains meconium (this is the baby’s first bowel movement and its presence may indicate fetal distress); the third reason is that once the bag of waters has been removed, the baby’s head can then press hard on the mother’s cervix, so helping along the dilatation of the cervix and completion of the first stage of labor.

Fetal monitoring For this, a heart-rate sensor is strapped to the mother’s abdomen. A low-risk mother is monitored only intermittently through her labor, although some hospitals prefer to monitor for about 20 minutes on admission so there’s a permanent record of the baby’s heart rate in case there are any problems later on. Some hospitals use continuous fetal monitoring that is watched from a central station-a clear advantage for women with high-risk pregnancy. Fetal monitoring should not mean a woman has to keep still. Although movement is limited, you can sit on the bed and even stand up if you want to change position. Obviously, having a “window” into the uterus during labor is of great value, but if the monitors aren’t working properly and data is misinterpreted by untrained staff, it ceases to be an advantage. Using a monitor may also switch attention from the mother to a machine, which can be disconcerting for a laboring woman.

Forceps These tong-shaped instruments are used to ease the baby’s head out of the birth canal. Forceps have saved the lives of many babies and their mothers, and can reduce the need for a cesarean section for a baby that is stuck up in the pelvis. The use of forceps does mean that an episiotomy is likely but not inevitable. Vacuum extraction, in which a cup is attached to the baby’s head by suction, is increasingly being used instead of forceps.