In which I extol the virtues of the Cochrane Database and evidence-based practice

Of all the websites I use for wasting time, The Cochrane Collaboration is probably the one I should make my homepage. Rather than learning how to make a hula hoop out of pvc-piping and a vice grip, the Cochrane Database has systematic non-biased reviews of health care studies.

About The Cochrane Reviews:

"Based on the best available information about healthcare interventions, Cochrane reviews explore the evidence for and against the effectiveness and appropriateness of treatments (medications, surgery, education, etc) in specific circumstances. Designed to facilitate the choices that doctors, patients, policy makers and others face in health care, the complete reviews are published in The Cochrane Library four times a year. Each issue contains all existing reviews, plus an increasing range of new and updated reviews."

Some things I learned tonight from about 15 minutes spent on the Pregnancy and Childbirth Topics page:

• They spell cesarean, "Caesarean" -- so if that's what you're looking for, there's how to spell it. Otherwise you might not get any hits.
  
• In Amniotomy for Shortening Spontaneous Labour, the results were "The evidence showed no shortening of the length of first stage of labour and a possible increase in caesarean section. Routine amniotomy is not recommended for normally progressing labours or in labours which have become prolonged."
• In Antibiotics for mastitis in breastfeeding women, "The review included two studies and approximately 125 women. One study compared two different antibiotics, and there were no differences between the two antibiotics for symptom relief. A second study comparing no treatment, breast emptying, and antibiotic therapy, with breast emptying suggested more rapid symptom relief with antibiotics. There is very little evidence on the effectiveness of antibiotic therapy, and more research is needed."
• In Vaginal chlorhexidine during labour to prevent early-onset neonatal group B streptococcal infection, "The review of five trials (including approximately 2190 term and preterm infants) showed that although chlorhexidine reduced the number of bacteria that passed to the babies, the studies were not large enough to say whether it reduced GBS infections or not."
  

I found the GBS study the most interesting, because you would assume that if the number of bacteria passed to the baby is reduced, the GBS infections would be reduced also, and it's not (as far as the review shows. Probably more research is needed. Isn't it always?)

I love being a doula, and helping women give birth, but sometimes being at a hospital can be so disheartening. Hospital protocol often has nothing to do with research. Withholding food and drink in labor to prevent aspiration "just in case" moms need an emergency c-section under general anesthesia is ridiculous -- in a study that included 78,000 laboring women who ate and drank, there was not one case of aspiration (source: The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth). Continuous fetal monitoring for low-risk pregnant women doesn't improve outcomes any more than intermittent monitoring, and may in fact raise rates of c-sections due to the high false-positive rate (same source). And yet, I see the former at every birth, and the latter pretty frequently. Women who are essentially told to run a marathon are told in the same breath to go the distance without food or water. An IV is not meal replacement -- in fact, they often overload the mom with too much fluid, causing her kidneys to work overtime -- and they are invasive and painful.

Glad the next two births I'm scheduled to attend are not at hospitals.