92: IV Fluids and Drinking During Labor

It is extremely important to stay hydrated during your labor and birth, and if you are dehydrated it will affect your labor. You can become lethargic and have a lack of energy, and your uterus is going to have a hard time contracting efficiently, which can slow down or stall your labor. There are three ways you can stay hydrated during your labor, by drinking fluids, receiving fluids from an IV, or a combination of the two. IV is short for intravenous, and IV fluids are delivered via a needle directly into a vein.

In U.S. hospitals it is common practice to routinely use IV fluids during labor, especially if you receive other interventions like an epidural or Pitocin. The benefit of being given IV fluids is that you stay hydrated during labor. This intervention also comes along with risks that can impact you, your baby, and even breastfeeding. Whether or not you plan to receive IV fluids during your birth, it is still a good idea to drink fluids during your labor. There are some tips and guidelines on what fluids are best to drink during labor and how you can ensure you stay hydrated during your labor. This episode covers the benefits of staying hydrated during your labor, how you can stay hydrated by drinking fluids, and the benefits and risks of IV fluids during labor.

Show notes: http://pregnancypodcast.com/episode92/

Thank you to Aeroflow for sponsoring this episode. Aeroflow is a company that helps you get a breast pump through your health insurance. There can be some hoops to jump through to get a breast pump through your insurance but Aeroflow does all of this for you and makes it so easy. All you need to do is fill out a form that takes just a minute and they will contact your health insurance company and work out all the details, then they will get in touch with you to help you choose the right breast pump. To get started on ordering your pump go to http://pregnancypodcast.com/breastpump/

Thank you to Zahler for their support of this episode. Zahler makes a high quality prenatal vitamin that has the active form of folate, that I refer after all of the research I have read on folic acid, plus it has omega 3s and DHA. This is the prenatal vitamin I take and the one I recommend. Zahler was very generous and gave me a promo code I can share with you so you can save 25% off when you buy a month supply on Amazon. To order them today go to http://amzn.to/2nOuFVB and enter the promo code PREPOD25 when you checkout.