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From: ron@brl-tgr.ARPA (Ron Natalie )
Newsgroups: net.med,net.women
Subject: Re: Birth Techniques (and their misconceptions)
Message-ID: <11462@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 10-Jul-85 16:57:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.11462
Posted: Wed Jul 10 16:57:56 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 11-Jul-85 16:29:22 EDT
References: <1784@aecom.UUCP>
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Organization: Ballistic Research Lab
Lines: 31

> 3. All women should be hooked up to IV feeding during labor.
> 	The argument for this is that if a complication occurs during
> delivery (i.e. shock), putting an IV in then would be more difficult. It is
> routine in many hospitals. Others (more reasonably) only do it for women
> at high risk.
> 

I know you are just quoting the article here but it shows even more mis-
conceptions.  The IV is not a "feeding" line.  The IV is provided for
two purposes:  one, to replace blood volume that is one of the major 
shock problems, and two, to provide a rapid avenue for the
administration of drugs (including anethesia).  When their are no shock
signs or the administration of drugs is not required, these lines are
kept at a KVO (keep vein open) level that assures that the line will
still be viable when it is necesary to use higher rates of infusion.  I
don't know about pregnancy, but it's standard procedure for surgery
procedures at most hospitals around here.    The amount of liquid
infused via a KVO drip is less than a millimeter per minute. The liquid
infused is mostly water with enough stuff in it to make it similar to
blood (if you infused straight water, you'd cause cellular rupture).
However the amount of time saved if you need to administer drugs or if
the mother starts to exhibit shock problems can be enourmous.

Just this morning it took two attempts to try to start an IV on a man
with sever circulatory depression.  He needed the IV, he needed the
large course of drugs that we followed into that line.  If you think
you may need to have an IV, it's best to have the catheter in and the
fluid running KVO because you don't want to be fussing with it when the
shit hits the fan.

-Ron Natalie, EMT-A, Intraveous Therapist.