What are the most important nutritional requirements during labor? Hydration is one of the most important requirements during labor. During labor the most important thing is that the mother stay well hydrated....
During labor the most important thing is that the mother stay well hydrated. We know that if the mother gets dehydrated her labor can become very dysfunctional. Most mothers in active labor are not interested in actual eating food but they are interested in sipping nutritious fluids. Electrolyte replacing fluids or even just normal water can be very helpful to keeping her hydrated. The uterine muscle is contracting very effectively and very rhythmically and it's such a large muscle it needs a lot of nutrition and fluid in order to contract effectively. So usually just a few sips of water after every contraction will help keep the mother well hydrated enough about a half cup of fluid an hour is about what the mother needs to be doing in active labor in order to stay ahead of dehydration.
While hydration is important, it must also be monitored, especially when given by IV. Some people feel that the IV fluids are enough hydration. Other people feel that those IV fluids might be titrated too quickly and so they might run in too quickly and over load her system and give her too much fluid. We see that in the women that have long labor induction with many, many bags of IV fluids. They tend to have very pronounced swelling in the days after birth as her body tries to unload that excessive fluid. So the thing about IV fluid is that it totally truncates the mother's wisdom in taking in the fluids that is right for her labor. Some mothers are thirstier than others and if we just titrate the fluids by an IV pump we totally truncate what her body would do intuitively with its own wisdom. So sometimes we give her too much and sometimes not enough.
