MILWAUKEE — An OB-GYN in Milwaukee is helping lead a study into whether simple antacids like Tums could help pregnant people to hasten their labor and delivery, welcoming their newborns into the world faster.

“Sort of anecdotally, what we have found is that when we gave pregnant people calcium carbonate, which is also known as Tums, while they were in labor, it seemed to speed up the process,” said Dr. Marie Forgie, an obstetrician and gynecologist with Aurora Health Care. “One of my midwife collaborators and I, Dr. Emily Malloy, were pretty curious about this, so we did a deep dive to see what research has been done on this and what we found is none has been done.”

Forgie’s was also quick to point out that it’s still early in the process of the study and they’re working to temper expectations.

“We’re halfway through collecting the information,” said Forgie. “We haven’t looked at the data yet — we’re sort of waiting until we get all 50 so we don’t get overly excited or disappointed on the interim results, and the goal with this pilot [study] is to make sure that it’s safe, first of all, and that people tolerate it and they’re okay with it. And then our hope is that in the future we’ll be able to do a larger study and really be able to look at bigger outcomes.”

Watch the full interview above.