11/11/2025
Have you ever been told that you can’t eat or drink in labor? 🤔
The midwifery model of care challenges this practice in mainstream obstetrics. Research has proven that the practice of withholding food or hydration from low risk laboring mothers has no real benefit. In fact, midwives encourage you to eat and drink during your labor to support the big work your body is doing. That work spends calories and we need to be putting gas into the tank if we are expecting your body to function effectively and safely.
Fasting for prolonged periods or during high energy activities (such as labor) leads to a condition called “ketosis”. Hello ketogenic diet! You are not for labor! During ketosis, your blood becomes more acidic in an effort to utilize fat stores for energy. If the energy does not come from food, it will come from your body tissue.
Ketosis can lead to symptoms such as: muscle cramps, dehydration, headache, fatigue, nausea, and vomiting.
The mainstream medical reasoning behind withholding food is to prevent inhaling of stomach contents if you were to be placed under general anesthesia during your labor. Although, most of us today understand that even in emergent cases, a cesarean is almost always carried out using spinal anesthesia removing this aspiration risk since the mother is awake for the procedure.
I always tell my clients that energy is our most important resource in labor. Anyone that has been attended by me during their labor knows I will stick a spoonful of applesauce or yogurt or a straw with your favorite drink in your mouth between contractions. This may seem like a basic and perhaps mundane part of labor, but preserving your energy is one of my larger priorities.
Just because it is mainstream and “normal” doesn’t mean it’s right. Below I have attached some of the benefits that have been found from research surrounding this very topic.
In a low risk client pursuing a home birth, withholding food doesn’t make sense.
