Science left unquestioned on BBC Radio 4 Today (again)

When there’s something “sciencey” on BBC Radio4 Today program, the interviewers never seems to ask any of the obvious “sciencey” questions about the subject. Today was no exception… A Professor from Liverpool was suggesting could reduce Caesarean section rates by giving the expectant mothers, whose labour was not progressing, a drink of bicarbonate of soda. Apparently, blood around the uterus (or womb) was too acidic in these women. I looked at this research which seems to have been published in June 2017 [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28587493], not entirely sure why it’s suddenly on Radio 4 in January 2018. The paper does not talk about uterine blood acidity it talks about lactic acid (or rather lactate ion) levels in the amniotic fluid and that this is reduced by a tiny amount by ingestion of bicarbonate. Lactic acid is the product of anaerobic respiration that temporarily accumulates in body tissues and is the usual cause of a “stitch”. “Lactic” as sports therapists are wont to call it actually as a very short half life and does not persist. The R4 interviewer should have known all that and could have probed that point! She also said it was properly “blinded” and that the normal procedure is to give oxytocin to promote delivery. The women and the midwives would know that they were not prescribing oxytocin to those women given the bicarb. So, how was it blinded? She said the trial was small...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Science Source Type: blogs