According to a recent Quebec study, glucose supplementation would speed up labor during childbirth in first-time mothers.
Quebec doctors may have found a way to speed up labor during childbirth by injecting glucose intravenously into future mothers. At the initiative of this research, Dr Josianne Paré, professor at the University of Sherbrook (Quebec) who presented her work at the congress of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.
An effective method for great athletes
The idea of injecting glucose is inspired by a similar method used with great athletes to boost their muscle performance. In this study, the principle remains the same, the glucose being supposed to stimulate the uterine muscle.
Carried out over a period of two years and ten months, the study brought together 200 pregnant women about to give birth. The researchers selected participants who all required labor challenge, a process that requires the injection of a hormone called oxytocin.
Random injections
The fact that these women benefit from a scheduled birth enabled doctors to estimate working time very precisely, since they were already in the hospital before it began. The researchers also favored women who gave birth for the first time, because it is generally in this case that the labor is the longest.
The 200 expectant mothers were divided into two groups. The first received physiological saline (water and sodium chloride) intravenously, while the second was given the same solution to which had been added glucose. “The fluid was covered with an opaque bag. So no one knew in which group the women were: neither the mothers, nor the doctor, nor the nurse who supervised the research. », Specifies Dr Paré.
Work reduced by 76 minutes on average
Dr Paré and his team found that women who received glucose gave birth 76 minutes earlier on average than the others.
“It’s a time that is clinically significant,” says Dr. Josianne Paré. An hour and a quarter less in labor, that makes a good difference for the mother! We are trying to change practices by showing the results we have obtained, because at the end of the day, our goal is to make childbirth easier for mothers. The specialist also points out that the injection of glucose did not increase the rate of complications. It could therefore be a simple, inexpensive and safe method to improve childbirth conditions.
These results join those of a study presented at the end of October at the Annual Congress of the American Society of Anesthesiologists which advocated the abolition of fasting in the labor room in favor of a light meal.
The authors of the research pointed out in particular that women spend phenomenal energy when they give birth and that, if the energy intake is not sufficient, this can lead to complications during childbirth … starting with the lengthening of the birth. work time.
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