Originally published February 8 2006
New study indicates coaching labor does not impact birthing time
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Steven Bloom, MD, of the obstetrics and gynecology department at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, recently conducted a study that found coaching only shortened the length of labor by 13 minutes, indicating that coaching could be withheld from pregnant women with no adverse side effects.
When a woman gives birth, her labor isn't shortened much by being coached about when to push, a new study shows.
The report, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, shows labor was 13 minutes shorter for women who were coached compared with those who were told to do what came naturally.
"Withholding such coaching is not harmful," write the researchers.
They included Steven Bloom, MD, of the obstetrics and gynecology department at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
"Oftentimes, it's best for the patient to do what's more comfortable for her," Bloom says in a news release.
The study included 320 women who were in labor with their first child at term.
The nurse-midwives coached the women in the first group to push at certain times during labor.
That's a "slight" difference, the researchers write.
"There were no other findings to show that coaching or not coaching was advantageous or harmful," Bloom says.
In an earlier study published in the journal's May edition, the researchers found that three months after giving birth vaginally, a smaller group of the women who had been coached during labor were more likely to have smaller bladder capacity than those who hadn't been coached.
However, those bladder problems can be temporary, and women who give birth vaginally without coaching can also experience changes in their urinary function.
It would take a much bigger study to see if labor coaching really made a difference, the researchers write.
"Whether or not these functional changes have long-term consequences, I'm not ready to say," says Kenneth Leveno, MD, in the news release.
Leveno, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, worked on both studies with Bloom and the other researchers.
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