Induction

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Evidence on Eating Dates to Start Labor

https://evidencebasedbirth.com/evidence-eating-dates-to-start-labor/

This has been a hot topic in the doula world for a while.

(Click link above to watch the video on EBB website regarding dates and labor!)

In today’s Q & A, part of our Natural Induction Series, we’re going to talk about eating the date fruit or Phoenix dactylifera to induce labor naturally. The date fruit contains a high percentage of carbohydrates and fats and also includes 15 different types of salts and minerals, proteins and vitamins, such as riboflavin, thiamine, biotin, folic acid, and ascorbic acid. Some Islamic scholars interpret verses in the Quran to mean that dates are one of the best foods to eat for childbirth. There have been three smaller randomized control trials on eating dates to induce labor and one observational study that asked women about how often they eat dates to induce labor.

In this video, you will learn:

  • About the studies that have been conducted on eating date fruit to find out whether it can improve birth outcomes with:

    • Cervical ripening
    • The use of labor induction/augmentation with oxytocin
    • Postpartum blood loss

  • If eating date fruit during pregnancy is safe

 

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ACOG Takes Big Step In Limiting Unnecessary Interventions During Birth

From doulas to movement, the group outlined ways to help curb intervention in low-risk moms.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/acogs-new-guidelines-urge-ob-gyns-to-scale-back-interventions_us_588903c7e4b0024605fd683d

(click link to read on huffingtonpost.com)

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has released new guidelines encouraging OB-GYNs and other birth practitioners to re-examine the necessity of various interventions that may not necessarily benefit low-risk moms.

The new committee opinion does not signal a dramatic shift in best practices for managing uncomplicated labors, but it is a clear acknowledgement from ACOG that technological interventions can often times interfere with a natural process rather than help it along.

“This committee opinion is the first one, to my knowledge, that specifically addresses low-risk patients,” author Dr. Jeffrey L. Ecker, chief of the Obstetrics and Gynecology department at Massachusetts General Hospital told The Huffington Post. “It says, very clearly, that there are some times when watchful waiting is appropriate. Just because we have the technology, doesn’t mean it has to be used in every patient.”

Many doctors and hospitals already embrace measures to limit intervention when appropriate, he said. But for others, this will likely shift the standard care.

 

(click link at top to continue reading on huffingtonpost.com)

 

 

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5 Things Your L&D Nurse Wishes You Knew

   When it comes to labor and birth, sometimes you get more when you know what to ask for. As an L&D nurse, it is my job to ensure that a woman is informed, empowered and autonomous t…

Source: 5 Things Your L&D Nurse Wishes You Knew (click to read the blog)

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The Most Scientific Birth Is Often the Least Technological Birth

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/03/the-most-scientific-birth-is-often-the-least-technological-birth/254420/

If you look at scientific literature, you find over and over again that many interventions increase risk to mother and child instead of decreasing it. 

When I ask my medical students to describe their image of a woman who elects to birth with a midwife rather than with an obstetrician, they generally describe a woman who wears long cotton skirts, braids her hair, eats only organic vegan food, does yoga, and maybe drives a VW microbus. What they don’t envision is the omnivorous, pants-wearing science geek standing before them.

Indeed, they become downright confused when I go on to explain that there was really only one reason why my mate — an academic internist — and I decided to ditch our obstetrician and move to a midwife: Our midwife could be trusted to be scientific, whereas our obstetrician could not.

(click link at the top to read the rest of the article on TheAtlantic.com)

 

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Childbirth: What to Reject When You’re Expecting

http://www.consumerreports.org/doctors-hospitals/childbirth-what-to-reject-when-youre-expecting/

10 procedures to think twice about during your pregnancy

Despite a healthcare system that outspends those in the rest of the world, infants and mothers fare worse in the U.S. than in many other industrialized nations. Infants in this country are more than twice as likely to die before their first birthday as those in Japan and Finland. And America now ranks behind 59 other countries in preventing mothers from dying during childbirth and is one of only eight countries in the world, along with Afghanistan and El Salvador, whose maternal mortality rate is rising.

Why? Partly because mothers in the U.S. tend to be less healthy than in the past, “which contributes to a higher-risk pregnancy,” says Diane Ashton, M.D., deputy medical director of the March of Dimes.

But another key reason may be that medical expediency appears to be taking a priority over the best outcomes. The U.S. healthcare system has developed into a labor-and-delivery machine, often operating according to its own timetable rather than the less predictable schedule of mothers and babies. Keeping things chugging along are technological interventions that can be lifesaving in some situations but also interfere with healthy, natural processes and increase risk when used inappropriately.

(click link at the top to read on Consumerreports.org)

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THE BIG BABY CONUNDRUM

http://blog.everymothercounts.org/the-big-baby-conundrum/

When I read the January 11th New York Times Well blog, titled When A Big Baby Isn’t So Big, I looked back on my career as a labor nurse and thought, “Yep – happens all the time.” Predictions for a “too big baby” were among the most common reasons I heard from women admitted to my labor unit for induction of labor or scheduled cesarean sections. In most cases, once the baby was delivered, either vaginally or surgically, they weren’t all that big after all.

The New York Times blog is centered around a recent study based on Childbirth Connection’s national survey of 1,960 new mothers, called Listening to Mothers III. The survey indicates that four out of five mothers who were warned they might have large babies gave birth to infants who were not large, and weighed less than 8 pounds 13 ounces (which defines macrosomia – a larger than average baby). These mothers were almost twice as likely to have interventions like medical induction of labor or attempt to self-induce labor, presumably so their baby wouldn’t get too big to deliver vaginally. They were also nearly twice as likely to have planned C-sections, though as the blog mentions, researchers say that increase fell just short of being statistically meaningful.

(click link to read the blog on the Every Mother Counts website)