Glucose may cut childbirth duration

Administering glucose supplements to women during childbirth, especially for the first birth, may shorten the labour time, researchers say. A prolonged labour, or a failure to progress, is a labour that takes more than 20 hours for first-time mothers and more than 14 hours for mothers who have given birth before.

According to the study, because glucose supplementation is known to improve muscle performance, adding glucose to the intravenous hydration solution women receive during childbirth could accelerate labour. "Glucose supplementation significantly reduces the total length of labour without increasing the rate of complication.

This is great news for women experiencing induced labour," said Josianne Pare from the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec, Canada. For the study, 200 pregnant women were randomly assigned to receive either a standard hydration solution containing salt and water or a solution containing glucose, salt and water.