Key to a natural birth... bicarbonate of soda
FOR centuries it has been used to make cakes rise.
Now, scientists have found that a pinch of bicarbonate of soda, dissolved in water, could help thousands of women undergoing a prolonged labour to give birth naturally. It works by neutralising acid in the womb.
This could save the NHS millions by reducing the need for caesarean sections. These can be very harmful for both mothers and babies, increasing the chances of infections, birth complications and the mother haemorrhaging. Around one in eight of the 700,000 births in the UK each year are unplanned caesareans. Each operation costs £1,000 more than a natural labour while the amount of bicarbonate of soda used by patients in the trial was 2.13 grams (0.075oz) – the equivalent of about 1p’s worth of the product from a supermarket.
Professor Susan Wray, from the University of Liverpool, and colleagues from Sweden’s Karolinska Institute carried out a study looking at 200 women giving birth for the first time. All were having difficulties making progress with a natural labour. Half were given the standard treatment – the drug oxytocin, which induces contractions.
The other 100 were given 2.13grams of bicarbonate of soda in a 200ml glass of water, followed by oxytocin after an hour. Eightyfour per cent of the women who had the drink gave birth naturally, compared with 67 per cent of those who did not have it.
Professor Wray said on Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘The outcome was really amazing. We were able to significantly increase the number of women having a spontaneous delivery and avoiding the emergency C-section. And not by just a few per cent, but by around 17 to 20 per cent.’
Explaining the findings in The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine, the authors said they took inspiration from how athletes deal with ‘lactic shock’ – a build-up of lactic acid in their muscles before a race. They drink a bicarbonate of soda solution an hour before a race.
The womb is a muscle, and when it is under exertion it produces large amounts of lactic acid too. But the increase in acid makes the muscle cells contract less effectively, causing difficulties in labour.