Poll For Moms Who have had their babies or have had babies before...

[Sophist]

I read on another forum that having IV fluids in labor can inflate your baby's birth weight.

I thought this was interesting because my son was big 9 lbz 9 oz, but then lost a lot of weight and had a hard time regaining for various reasons. I was on IV fluids with him for my entire labor.

My daughter was big, but not as big 8 lbs 13 oz, and I was only on an IV for a short time.

Please answer the poll...just curious to see if there's a pattern.

 

[austinsmom]

Interesting theory. I'm assuming all mom's in the US have an IV during labor (everyone I know always has).
I did, and my son was 8lbs 4oz.

 

[Sophist]

Interesting theory. I'm assuming all mom's in the US have an IV during labor (everyone I know always has).
I did, and my son was 8lbs 4oz.

I was told I only had to have an IV if I needed abx for GBS. Otherwise I could just have a hep lock (sp?) put in, so that in an emergency they could get an IV going asap. With DS I had an IV constantly for like 9 hours. With DD I just had an IV for abx running for like 20 minutes and then they shut it but left the thing in my wrist in case more was needed later.

I don't know if there's anything to the idea that it goes with birth weight...never heard it before and google isn't telling me anything. But I thought it would be fun to do a poll.

I asked my mom. She had 6 kids and only 1 baby over 9 lbs, and he was the only one she had an IV with.

 

[PrayerfulHope]

Interesting theory. I'm assuming all mom's in the US have an IV during labor (everyone I know always has).
I did, and my son was 8lbs 4oz.

It's "procedure" to have an IV during labor here in the states, but you can tell them not to put one in and just wear a saline lock or saline patch instead.

Truth is, having all of that liquid in the body during labor dilutes the blood and makes the oxytocin hormone in your blood also diluted and can slow down labor and contractions. Interesting, isn't it? Maybe this is why the US has such a high rate of pitocin usage.

 

[mumtobeplus1]

My daughter was 9lb 11oz, i wasnt on anything, only gas & air. x

 

[Sophist]

A bit of an update, I asked my MW about it and she said she's never heard it before or seen it to be the case in her deliveries. She did say IV fluids affect mom's weight after delivery (inflating it because of water retention,) but that she's never seen nor heard of an effect on the babies. Looks like our poll shows about the same!

 

[Etoille]

My DD was 6lbs 11.5 oz, She lost a teeny bit in hospital, but gained it back quick. I myself was only 5lbs 6.8 oz at birth. DH was 6lbs 10 oz, so we expected her to be average/small.