People have the human right to decide if they would like to eat or drink during labor, or not. Hospital policy is not binding on patients, including birthing people, and hospitals do not have the legal authority to prevent a laboring person from eating and drinking if they so choose. It is not evidence-based practice to allow opinions to restrict people’s autonomy just because evidence from credible studies is not available and in fact, we do have quite a bit of evidence on this topic.
