Labor-Aid: An Energizing Lemon-Lime Electrolyte Drink
During early labor, it’s beneficial to continue eating light and nourishing foods to keep energy up. Although, as sensations start to intensify, food often becomes the last thing on a laboring mama’s mind.
Just like any other intense physical activity, it’s crucial to stay hydrated throughout labor as well. It’s especially important to make sure that what you’re drinking contains electrolytes, which are required for muscle contractions. Without electrolytes, muscles become weak, and contractions of the uterus can be less effective. Electrolytes also regulate nerve function, hydration, pH balance, and blood pressure. Drinking labor-aid not only allows the body to work more efficiently during labor, it also helps support recovery after birth because electrolytes assist in rebuilding damaged tissue as well.
In preparation for birth, I recommend assigning someone to “labor-aid duty.” Have your partner, doula, or other support person offer you labor-aid every 15 minutes. This beneficial beverage contains natural sugars from healthy sources, but it doesn’t contain fat or protein, which can slow down the rate at which muscles use the energy supplied from the sugar.
Labor is very energy-intensive, and your body uses the sugar quite quickly, so it’s important that your person on duty continues to offer you the drink at regular intervals so you can maintain your energy and endurance.
Lemon Lime Labor-Aid
2 cups coconut water
1 cup water
juice from 1 lemon
juice from 1 lime
1 tbsp unpasteurized honey
¼ tsp unrefined Himalayan salt
optional: trace mineral/electrolyte drops
More Tips
When to make it? You may not want to worry about making labor-aid once your labor begins, but it’s best when it’s fresh. Options...
If you have the ingredients on hand, your “labor-aid duty” person could prepare it for you.
Alternatively, you can juice the lemon and lime, add the honey, salt, and optional mineral drops, and then freeze them in ice cube trays. That way, when it's time, just add the concentrated cubes to the water and coconut water.
Also, make sure to have a few straws on hand! You’ll probably find yourself in various positions during labor, and you may not want to move much. Having the labor-aid person on duty hold the straw to your lips will make it much easier to consume.
Join us in supporting women through birth and beyond
Thoughtful choices made during labor, like staying nourished and hydrated, can have a powerful impact on a woman’s experience and recovery.
Become a Certified Nutrition Consultant and help guide families through pregnancy, birth, and postpartum with evidence-based knowledge, encouragement, and care.
Together, we can change the way women are supported through one of life’s most transformative journeys.
