The Birth Activist recently wrote about restrictions of food and fluids for laboring and women, and how Robbie Davis-Floyd has written about this phenomenon as a “rite of passage.”  The Birth Activist highlighted a recent Cochrane Review that found that food/fluid restrictions in labor are unnecessary, something I agree with whole heartedly, having eatten a VERY large breakfast more than 12 hours after contractions had started in my first labor.  She then points out that Robbie Davis-Floyd has long identified the ban on eating/drinking in labor as a “rite of passage.”

Speaking of “rites of passage,” what is with making the dad put on scrubs before he can go with his wife to the OR? She wears the same hospital gown into the OR that she’s been wearing for hours in labor…but he needs to put on scrubs. As a doula, when I’m allowed to go in, I’m given a set of hospital scrubs to put on…even though I’m already wearing my own scrubs. I’ve never argued it because it just doesn’t seem worth the ill will…but really, what is the point?

I understand why the medical staff wear scrubs– Continue Reading…