Does Labourade really help?

[singleteenagemum]

Just a quick question.

I'm being induced on Saturday night and read somewhere that labourade is supposed to help...can anyone back this up? or give advice on the best type? recipes?

thnx STM

I found this but have never heard of it! Good luck for Saturday!

thanks fastasleep

Hmmm. Sounds a bit acidic to me, but worth a go!

Tbh if you feel hungry in labour (which you may not do), it's probably best to eat food - although the midwives might not be very happy to see you eating (in case you end up needing a general anaesthetic).

Deffo worth keeping up the fluid intake in small, regular amounts though (don't forget to wee ).

Good luck

Maybe lucozade would be good, or you could get lemonade and put glucose powder in it (my gran used to swear by that for a bit of an energy kick!) if you can stomach either that is..

I think the point is that labour might slow down if your glucose levels drop - but that eating solid food might be problematic if you need a general anaesthetic. Taking a glucose / electrolyte drink keeps your energy levels up, but without causing aspiration problems during anaesthesia. There's something in the NICE guidelines about it.

I think Mummyhill mentioned this originally, didn't she? This was her recipe .

OTOH the aspiration risks are really not very big. It's not like you're lying around just waiting for an operation - contractions are surprisingly tiring (not to mention hard to sleep through...) and if you feel like eating, do it (IMnon-medicalO).

I had a full English breakfast at 1cm dilated (after 24hrs of contractions) and half a tuna sandwich (the only thing on sale in the hospital at night) at about 5cm dilated, and they both did me the power of good.

Found it:

"Women should be informed that eating a low-residue diet during labour (toast, crackers, low-fat cheese) results in larger gastric volumes, but the effect on the risk of aspiration if anaesthesia is required is uncertain.

Women should be informed that having isotonic drinks during labour prevents ketosis without a concomitant increase in gastric volume."

This is from the NICE Caesarean guidelines .

Red, I had contractions for 52 hours before my caesarean. You can't just live on dry toast and lucozade for that length of time.

No - I appreciate that. I'm planning a homebirth and have a variety of easily digestible little comestibles knocking about (bananas, honey, yoghurt) as well as more substantial fare. But she asked about labourade - so I'm giving her the information that I have.

Cheers Everyone,

RZ i remember someone saying about it but couldn't where, when or who

The risk of aspiration during a general aneasthetic for a CS is reduced in the following way. You are given a small drink of sodium citrate which neutralises stomach acidity. Whether you've eaten or not, as you drift off to sleep, the anaesthetic assistant will press on your windpipe which will prevent stomach contents from being regurgitated until the breathing tube is secured in place. It's not as bad as it sounds, honest! Even patients who are starved for elective surgery have at least 150 mls of fluid sitting in their stomachs anyway so try not to get too worried about eating/drinking. Some mat depts give dextrose tablets to suck during labour.

I had lots of lucozade & lucozade tablets. MW monitored about of lucozade I was drinking but didn't stop me from having either. I didn't feel like eating tbh and found the extra engery a real help. Labour wasn't as long as most peoples (10hrs 50mins) but I still needed energy.

So that's a no to labourade, but glucose drinks and snacks???

My midwives encouraged me to eat and drink as much as I wanted! In fact, first labour, I didn't seem to want to eat, jsut to drink, and the midwives were concerned to see how little I'd ordered off the menu, and then that I sent my plate away virtually untouched. Mind you, second labour I didn't stop eating from start to finish!

Whatever you do, make sure you have plenty of complex-carbohydrate food for afterwards - you will be ravenous.

My aunt is a nurse, her first specialisation was post-operative nursing, and whenever one of us has to have a GA, she tells us to ignore the hospital advice and keep drinking water as long as we can, in small amounts so that it gets absorbed as quickly as possible, as the better hydrated we are the better we will recover. Of course we don't eat after the deadline, but none of us have ever vomited or suffered in any way from following her advice.

From what I've seen of the labourade recipes, I think they're meant to be a home-made substitute for glucosey / isotonic drinks, aren't they? Without the additives.

(Thought about making it myself, but then decided that I couldn't be bothered and have bought some Lucozade sport instead... Have baked a fruit cake for my husband though - so I'm not entirely slack.)

For my first baby, i took in lucasade to drink, but they would not let me drink it, insisted on water/sucking boiled sweets or nothing at all- I basically went for nearly 72 hrs without anything to eat-this time i will be smuggling it in