On the esteemed BBC Radio 4 news this morning and in all the health pages of the UK newspapers like the Daily Mail today the headlines have been raving about recent research findings that a dose of bicarbonate of soda in water can help revive flagging contractions in labour and save up 20% or more of women headed for a Caesarean or C section.
While this is certainly not 'fake news' it's not really new news either. As far back as the early 19th century homeopaths such as Samuel Hahnemann and Ernest Farrington have been using Natrum Carb (natrum carbonicum), known to you and me as plain old bicarbonate of soda, to treat women whose labour pains are weak. To quote George Vithoulkas, our greatest living homeopath:
"There is another use you may make of Natrum carb., and that is when labor pains are weak and cause a great deal of anguish, tremor, and perspiration with every pain, and are relieved by gentle rubbing."
It's a shame it's only taken 200 years for the mainstream medical establishment to catch up with what every homeopath already knows.
It doesn't bear thinking about how many women to date might have been saved a ceasarean (and the NHS a lot of money) if homeopaths had been allowed into the labour wards of our hospitals.