Limiting Oral Intake during Labor: Do We Have It Right?

( Anesthesiology . 2022;136:528–530) A recent study by Bouvet et al compared gastric emptying in 4 groups: laboring parturients with epidural analgesia, laboring parturients without epidural analgesia, nonlaboring pregnant women, and nonpregnant women. They found that, while laboring parturients had a slower rate of gastric emptying than nonpregnant and nonlaboring pregnant women, epidural analgesia did not slow gastric emptying but facilitated it. The majority (9 of 10) of laboring patients without epidural analgesia had solid food in their stomach 2 hours after ingesting a small meal, compared to only 3 of 10 patients who received epidural analgesia.