Paracetamol… Friend or Foe?
(June 2017) As I slowly began to take more triage calls as a student midwife, I learnt the early standard ‘advice’ we would routinely give to women calling in early labour… “Have you had a bath and a couple of paracetamol?” being the primary line of defence in encouraging women to cope at home, away from the intervention and interference of the labour ward. The intention is of course pure, when everything is normal and if that is where she feels safe, then the best place for a woman to be in early labour is at home. So what if the very thing that is intended to help women to cope with the latent phase of labour, is actually causing the latent phase to last longer? I read a fascinating blog post by Midwife Undercover who had noticed an apparent increase in the length of the latent phase of labour and had consequently looked into the possibility that paracetamol was the culprit. As I read, I felt like I was experiencing an ‘eureka’ moment – paracetamol works by inh...