Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site dartvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!decvax!dartvax!betsy From: betsy@dartvax.UUCP (Betsy Hanes Perry) Newsgroups: net.med,net.women Subject: Re: Birth Techniques (and their misconceptions) Message-ID: <3342@dartvax.UUCP> Date: Fri, 12-Jul-85 16:51:02 EDT Article-I.D.: dartvax.3342 Posted: Fri Jul 12 16:51:02 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 12-Jul-85 21:00:58 EDT References: <1784@aecom.UUCP> <11462@brl-tgr.ARPA> Distribution: na Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH Lines: 33 > > 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. > > > > 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. > > > -Ron Natalie, EMT-A, Intraveous Therapist. Yes, but delivery is different from surgery in that it is not unreasonable for the patient to expect to be mobile. (Uh, Doc, mind if I walk around the room while you do that appendectomy?) An IV line drastically restricts a woman's freedom to sit, squat, pace, or do whatever comes naturally. I suspect that's why the originally-cited article suggested that IV lines should not be mandatory in all cases. In a high-risk pregnancy, obviously, the rules are different; I think the major complaint about modern obstetrics is that some OBs behave as if all pregnancies were high-risk by definition. -- Elizabeth Hanes Perry UUCP: {decvax |ihnp4 | linus| cornell}!dartvax!betsy CSNET: betsy@dartmouth ARPA: betsy%dartmouth@csnet-relay "Ooh, ick!" -- Penfold