Early oral hydration and its impact on bowel activity after elective caesarean section--our experience

To assess the effects of early oral hydration after elective caesarian section.

Hundred women were selected from the maternity wards of LHMC and SSK Hospital, and alternately assigned into control and study groups of 50 each. Women with medical complications and antepartum haemorrhage were excluded. In the study group, oral hydration was started 6-h postextubation irrespective of presence of bowel sounds. Solid food was started after bowel sounds appeared. In the control group, traditional regime of oral hydration after the appearance of bowel sounds and then a gradual shift to the solids was adopted. The return of bowel activity, time of ambulating and complications were compared.

Bowel sounds appeared in a significantly shorter duration of time in study group, the mean being 7.4 h as compared to 11.5 h in the control group. Passage of flatus and bowel evacuation was earlier in the study group (9.14 and 23.7 h, respectively) than in the control (19.9 and 32.3 h, respectively). Women ambulated faster in the study group than the control group (15 h versus 25 h, respectively). Mean oral fluid intake was much more and return to soft and then full diet was faster in the study group. Sixty percent women preferred early feeding to the traditional one.

Early oral hydration in the postoperative period helps in the faster recovery of the patient by means of quicker return to normal feeding habits and early ambulation, the two main concerns of any surgeon before discharging the woman after caesarian section.