Comparing the effect of bananas and dates on the reactivity of the non-reactive fetus non-stress test: A randomized clinical trial

Background and aims: The non-stress test (NST) is one of the pregnancy screening tests used to measure fetal well-being. Any factors that can increase the reactivity or reduce the time to reach reactivity in the NST test are beneficial. This study aimed to investigate the effect of pregnant mothers’ consumption of bananas and dates on the reactivity of the non-reactive fetus NST test. Methods: One hundred sixty pregnant women with 37 weeks of pregnancy and more referred for fetus electrocardiography to the midwifery clinic of Hajar hospital in Shahrekord were randomly assigned into 4 groups, including group 1 (one banana and 500 cc water), group 2 (7 dates and 500 cc water), group 3 (25 g glucose and 500 cc water) and group 4 or control group (500 cc water). Before and one hour after the intervention, NST and the mother’s blood sugar were recorded. Data was analyzed by SPSS software. Results: There were no significant differences between the gender of the fetus, blood glucose level, mean age of the mother, and mean gestational age in the studied groups at baseline (P>0.05). The abundance of non-reactive results in bananas plus water, dates plus water, glucose plus water, and water groups were 6 (15%), 11 (27.5%), 11 (27.5%), and 13 (32.5%), respectively. Based on the chi-square test, the frequency of reactive and non-reactive results in the studied groups showed no significant difference (P=0.315). Conclusion: According to the study results, consuming bananas before the NST test does not affect NST results, and blood glucose did not change in the groups before and after the intervention.