August 2006 Weddings
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
(@) pain meds during birth
Ok so I know all about epidural. I'm not trying to debate natural birth vs meds. I just have a question. I'm watching a british show about child birth (i'm bored, don't judge me) and apparently the most commonly used form of pain meds during birth over here is some sort of gas. Literally the mom has a face thingy on the whole time to breath in the gas during labor
Is that even an option in the US? Anyone know anything about it? Are there less/more issues than with epidural?
Re: (@) pain meds during birth
never heard of it.
if you want to watch a great movie about birth, watch The Business of Being Born... it's quite amazing...
I am the 99%.
And it definitely wasn't additional oxygen?
I didn't learn anything like that in my baby classes.
I hope you aren't talking about 'twilight sleep'...
http://wondertime.go.com/learning/article/childbirth-pain-relief.html
I am the 99%.
I'm not totally sure, but I think it's Nitrous Oxide (laughing gas, like at the dentist). I haven't heard of it being used here. If you google, there are some side effects listed... this is from drugs.com:
When used in small doses to relieve pain during labor and delivery, halothane may slow delivery and increase bleeding in the?mother?after the baby is born. These effects do not occur with small doses of enflurane, isoflurane, or methoxyflurane. However, they may occur with large doses of these anesthetics.
It sounds like it's cycled through the body quickly, but also crosses the placenta. Not sure how it compares overall with epidural, but getting an epi is certainly a more involved procedure than breathing gas.
?
Apparently some hospitals administer nitrous oxide. This was from the UCSF Children's Hospital's webpage:
Nitrous oxide gas (the same gas that is used at the dentist) can be inhaled during contractions through a mask you hold. The gas can lessen but not eliminate the pain of labor. The effect occurs only while the gas is being inhaled and disappears rapidly when the mask is removed. It can be used through delivery.
Was there some other type of gas used back in the day? Mr. has this crazy story about hallucinations during a dental procedure (I guess it would have been late 60's or early 70's) after they gassed him. I think he's scarred by it
I've had the laughing gas but nothing that traumatic ever came of it.?
The only thing I had coming through a mask during labor/delivery was oxygen.
From what I understood from my OB, most of the gas pain options are pretty much obsolete these days, because there is greater risk of complications and longer recovery time (gotta turn over those beds!)
Hmmmm I'm somewhat a "laughing gas" junkie. Ok, not really, but I won't go to a dentist who doesn't have it. But I have dentist issues...
anwyho.
It was definitely listed under "pain killers." They said you could get gas or epidural for the pain. It was considered a non-natural birth...at least on this show. So I doubt it was just O2
I just now changed my profile so it says "london." hopefully that will remind people
I'm pretty sure my mother doesn't remember what they gave her. I am wondering if they just gave her too much??? Very curious
I doubt it was a dosing issue. Even 15-20ish years ago they were using hallucinegenic and amnesiatic drugs for pain relief for laboring women. It's not common practice anymore (at least in the US).
Honestly, I don't know exactly why it isn't more widely available (it is available in some places. It's not banned). I can make some guesses, though.
Our medical system, especially concerning childbirth, is to make the job easier on the doctors and nurses without as much concern over what is easier for women. Why are women lying down on a bed? So doctors can more easily do their work. Is that the best position for women? Emphatically no. It's pretty much the worst. An epidural shuts women up, keeps them supine and in one place, is administered once (by yet another doctor), easy, right?
Our medical system also encourages doctor control rather than patient control. NO is something that for the most part is in patient control. Yes, it is monitored (requiring more work for the provider), but it is the woman who controls when she receives the dose and for how long she needs it.
I would imagine those are parts of it, and I would also imagine there's some drug lobby at work as well as the doctor (historically male) vs woman divide that has infected the field ever since the doctors basically illegalized the midwives who threatened their authority and livelihood. In our country, pregnancy is seen as a disease that needs to be fixed and cured, and epidural vs other pain mgmt follows in that mentality.
Have you read Our Pregnancies Ourselves? Even that book isn't entirely sure why NO isn't more commonly available in the US.
Oh, and for people talking about moms and grandmas. While in the 70s and 80s it wasn't used, earlier in the 20th century, ether and chloroform were administered.
Re: Oxygen. The NO that is used during childbirth is usually a mix of both NO and oxygen, so it's not that these British moms are receiving one instead of the other. They do get both.