Patricia says,

<< with regard to my contention that excessive iv fluids will creast edema in
 mother and babies.... i think that many of our hospital based colleagues have
 seen this/ and while there are to date no studies, other than J. Riordan's
 poster session. Much of medicine is with out "studies". >>

I didn't see Jan R's poster session, but I don't know if she just looked at
IV fluids themselves, or if she looked at the effect of PITOCIN and excessive
IV fluids.  Remember that Pit is an antidiuretic which is why many mothers
who are induced for 6 to 8 hours or more become edematous. (Notice I said
*many*, not *all*). If the mom is getting Pit, so is the baby.  If it is an
antidiuretic in a mom, it is in baby too.  If it holds fluid in the mother's
system, it does in the baby too.  For the most part, babies don't have
"dependent extremities" so the edema would be all over.  I suspect that the
baby is able to pee off the extra fluid a lot faster than the mother can (we
know that it can take up to 12 days for the mother to get rid of all the
edema).

Just a thought.

Jan Barger, RN, MA, IBCLC
Wheaton Illinois
Lactation Education Consultants
www.lactationeducationconsultants.com

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html