A randomised controlled trial of early initiation of oral feeding after cesarean section

Objective. To evaluate the safety and efficacy of early oral feeding after cesarean delivery. Methods. Two hundred women who had cesarean section were randomly assigned to early feeding or routine feeding. Women in the early feeding group were encouraged to take sips of water 8h post-operatively, followed by oral tea of 100mL at the time of supervision. Women in the routine feeding group were managed by restricting oral intake for the first 24h and administration of sips of water 24-48h post-operatively. The outcome measures include the rate of ileus symptoms, post-operative time interval to presence of bowel sounds, passage of flatus and bowel movement, time interval to return to regular diet, length of hospital stay, post-operative complications, acceptability and benefit of early oral feeding. Results. The early feeding group had a shorter mean post-operative time interval to bowel sounds 18.904.17h versus 36.213.52h (p0.001), passage of flatus 44.813.73h versus 60.584.40h (p0.001) and bowel movement 58.305.91h versus 72.764.25h (p0.001). There was no significant difference in paralytic ileus symptoms. Early feeding group had a shorter mean hospital stay 4.800.59 days versus 6.690.71 days (p=0.001). Early feeding group required less intravenous fluid 7.141.34 bottles versus 11.81.32 bottles (p0.001). Conclusions. Early feeding after cesarean section was well tolerated and safe and can be implemented without an increase in adverse outcome.