Policy or tradition: oral intake in labour.
Oral intake restrictions have varied over time and around the world with written hospital policies for this issue often being non-existent. As there are differing views on this issue within hospitals overseas, a survey was conducted of 109 maternity units in New South Wales, Australia during early 2000 to identify the trends across the state. In New South Wales 81.7% of hospitals did not have a written policy for oral intake in labour. The remaining 18.3% had written policies which varied in their oral intake allowances from ice only to whatever women feel like eating and drinking. Of the 109 hospitals in this survey 60.5% leave food and fluid requirements to the individual woman's discretion, providing they have no increased risk of general anaesthetic.
Parsons
M
M
parsons5@bigpond.net.au
D000328:Adult; D004326:Drinking; D004327:Drinking Behavior; D004435:Eating; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007743:Labor, Obstetric; D008880:Midwifery / Q000379:methods*; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology; D009517:New South Wales; D024802:Nurse's Role; D011247:Pregnancy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires