…turns out, anesthesiologists now say yes, women and anyone else giving birth can eat during labor. Apparently, making sure one has access to nutrients when engaging in difficult physical activity can actually be beneficial! Who could have imagined?
It wouldn’t have made any difference to me–when I was lying on the table waiting for my C-section, I threw up everything in my stomach anyway (pity the poor med student who had to hold the bucket for me; oh, fuck that–pity me), because there’s something terrifying about lying down, unable to move, knowing people are about to slice you open and gut you, even if you know it’s for the best of all reasons and they are only trying to help you. And because my situation was high-risk, I don’t know if this would’ve applied to me even if I hadn’t had to have had a C-section, but it’s good to know for regular pregnancy and labor.
The linked press release talks about advances in anesthesia, but also notes those advances are decades old–using epidurals and spinal blocks rather than anesthesia given in a mask over nose and mouth. So, you know, it’s about time the medical wisdom caught up.