Just give me some drugs!

Flying solo this week as Dave has a cold and was forced to miss class (not a very good thing to sneeze and blow your nose with a roomful of pregnant women). In this class we learned about pain relief during labour – drug and non-drug options.

Although I’m aiming to go drug free, it’s good to know about the options.

Gas
Combination of nitrous oxide and oxygen, commonly known as ‘happy gas’. It’s actually quite effective and fast acting but it also leaves the body immediately. So you need to keep sucking it which could tire you out easily.

Pethidine
Not the most effective pain relief but it acts as a relaxant – so if your labour is really long, it can help you relax and drift off between contractions. Although it can make some people feel sick.

Epidural
This is the one everyone talks about because after all it is a giant needle going into your spine (or specifically, your epidural space). Epidural is actually not the name of the drug, but the name of the procedure. Once you gain access to your epidural space, a local anaesthetic can be injected directly into your body and it blocks all pain from the waist down. As it takes a while for everything to be set up (including getting a 20 minute drip before hand to counter balance a drop in blood pressure), so if the midwife thinks you will give birth within the hour, you won’t get your epidural.

Non-Drug Options

Heat
Heat, especially wet heat (from shower/bath) is very effective for pain relief. So the water birth option is looking more and more appealing to me.

Massage
This includes massage of your acupuncture pressure points. Will definitely give this a try.

TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation)
This is an interesting one as it sends small electrical pulses up your spine to block the pain signals from reaching your brain. But you need to hire the unit beforehand if you want to start using it at home.

As well as learning about pain relief, we also watched a second video, this time from the dad’s point of view. Too bad Dave had a cold and missed this class. There were lots of funny comments from all the different dads and it also showed a vacuum assisted birth. Much more graphic than the last video but still a beautiful birth! I'll spare you all the 'juicy' details :)

Next class – Caesarean births! Good stuff!

I'll leave you with this intriguing video - a new exercise chair that'll make your back ache just by watching this infomercial! ENJOY!



Bye bye for now, from Viv and baby.