Updated: July Amniotic sac and fluid play an important role in the labour process and usually remain intact until the end of labour. Women who choose to wait are usually told their baby is at increased risk of infection and they are encouraged to have IV antibiotics during labour.
The rush to start labour and get the baby out after the waters have broken is fairly new. You might assume that this change in approach was based on some new evidence about the dangers involved in waiting for labour. You would be wrong.
Obstetricians also tend to have great respect for research evidence β certainly more than other forms of knowledge midwives also use experience, intuition, witchcraft etc.
However, please note that research reviews are only as good as the research reviewed. Research is not conducted in a vacuum, and the questions that are asked, and the methods used, tell us a lot about the social and cultural context of knowledge, and what is valued.
You can read more about research bias in maternity care in this post. Please note that this post is not about premature rupture of membranes before 37 weeks. It would be very interesting to know how many of the suspected probable cases of sepsis were merely care providers being cautious and making assumptions. For example, some symptoms associated with sepsis can be caused by other interventions β epidural increases the chance of a high temperature in both mother and baby; and a stressful labour and syntocinon can result in low blood glucose in the newborn.
