Chocolate or orange juice for non-reactive non-stress test (NST) patterns: a randomized prospective controlled study

Abstract

Objective: The objective of the study was to compare bitter chocolate and orange juice with the control group for non-reactive non-stress test (NST) patterns and for maternal perception of fetal movements.

Study design: Pregnant women who were followed-up on an outpatient basis and admitted for a NST and had a non-reactive result were randomized prospectively into bitter chocolate, orange juice and control groups. 180 patients were evaluable for the final analysis.

Results: Although there was a trend for orange juice group for having higher percentages of reactive NST patterns on control, there was no statistically significant difference between three groups (p = 0.159). Besides this, maternal perception of increased fetal movements was similar between groups (p = 0.755). The control group had lower post-test capillary blood glucose concentrations when compared with chocolate and orange juice groups (p = 0.01) and after post-hoc tests, this difference was found to be between orange juice and control groups.

Conclusions: Although orange juice resulted in higher blood glucose levels, this was not synonymous with better NST results on control; in such a way that bitter chocolate, orange juice and no intervention had similar effects on non-reactive NST patterns and also on maternal perception of fetal movements.

• Bitter chocolate
• fetal movements
• glucose
• non-reactive test
• non-stress test
• orange juice