The researchers compiled data from seven small clinical trials that collectively included 1,215 women. Of these women, 593 women received IV fluids at a rate of 250 milliliters per hour and 622 women received fluids at the slower rate of 125 milliliters per hour.
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The study shows that women who received the IV fluids at the higher fluid rate were less likely to get a C-section. Additionally, the higher fluid rate reduced the overall labor time by an average of 64 minutes. It also shortened the pushing phase by around three minutes on average.
“The results are compelling and strongly argue for a change in practice,” says Vincenzo Berghella, MD, director of maternal fetal medicine and obstetrics and gynecology professor at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University. “We have already begun changing practice at Jefferson to give women more fluids in labor, to allow them to have the best chance of delivering vaginally.”
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