pethidene

with DS I had pethidene as well as gas and air...

The gas made me feel sick I couldn't stand the taste, smell etc
The pethidene just messed with my head, it didn't take away any pain,

I'm wondering whether everyone felt the same?
or whether anyone actually got pain relief from pethidene?

during the transitional stage, I clearly became delirious and I'm wondering whether the pethidene would have contributed to the feeling of delirium?

I actually told my husband... Incase I was to die, don't use certain knives in our kitchen draw, because I use them to clean and fix things, and I didn't want him using them to eat with.

And I told him I'm sure he" ll be a great dad, he will cope..... ( without me )

my labour was posterior and went from thurday afternoon until Sunday at 10.38am when I gave birth.... So I probably thought I couldn't handle anymore pain ;)

But I'm doing it again.... Birth that is so clearly it wasn't bad ;)

I had pethadine after the gas made me sick and the epidural wouldn't go into my back. And all that happened was I fell asleep between contractions. It didn't reduce the pain, just made me pass out.

i haven't used it myself but I have heard that it messes most people up! I'm sure someone will tell you shortly :)

My grandmother has that kind of reaction to Peth and Morphine. Last time she was in hospital the Drs thought she had dementia because she was halucinating on Morphine.

I had Peth with my 1st labour, it didn't reduce the pain at all for me, it jsut made me groggy.

All the stories of pethidine scared the crap outta me, so it was in my birth plan that it was definitely not to be offered.

my experience with both with DD1 was exactly the same as urs, hated it!
with DD2 i had nothing because i figured the only other option was an epi, and they scare me!

with the peth i was passing out between cx and literally couldnt be woken, until the next cx anyway

Same with me I had Pethadine in my first labour, hated it made me feel groggy, ended up vomiting which then made me dehydrated. Like you he was a posteriour baby, ended up being suctioned out.

With my second labour I knew there was abolutely no way I was going to have pethadine again and I was determined to master the gas (didn't really use properly last time) my second little man was also posteriour but I made sure I started sucking in the gas well and truely before the contraction started and it got me through.

3rd little man, ended up with nothing except the hot water in the shower and it probably worked better than anything

I had pethidine after my laproscopy and it really didn't agree with me!! Made me throw up and the room spin out of control, I felt like my head was tipping backwards with the room, and as you said didn't really take pain away, I could still feel the sensation of the pain, in addition to feeling nauseous and throwing up (anisthetic also makes me throw up too). So needless to say I was very adamant about not having pethidine during labour!

My Mum had four children and only had pethidine for the labour for her first child. She swore never again. My sister had pethidine for one of her labours and her way of describing it was "like being locked inside your body whilst you go through hell and not being able to tell anyone about it." On that basis, (and on the basis that it crosses the placenta) I decided against it. I used only the gas during my labour, but if push came to shove I would have taken an epidural over pethidine, any day.

Next time, I hope to avoid the gas. For me, it didn't take away the pain, it only helped me focus on something (breathing in the gas) other than the pain. Towards the end it made me lose focus and I wasn't able to think clearly (although that might have been the cascading contractions :lol:)

for me it just made me unable to move or understand what the pain was that i was suddenly experiencing. up until that point i wasnt in pain from the contractions, but after it was injected, BAM, a wall of pain for each one and a brain freak each time. DH reckons i looked calm the whole time but all i remember from that time is panic as i couldnt move my body and i was really really spacey.

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"like being locked inside your body whilst you go through hell and not being able to tell anyone about it."

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that's exactly how it was for me.

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I had pethadine after the gas made me sick and the epidural wouldn't go into my back. And all that happened was I fell asleep between contractions. It didn't reduce the pain, just made me pass out.

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:yeahthat: I had gas & peth with DD1. Did nothing for the pain, but I passed out 3 times... once in the bath! Hyperventilating on the gas probably didn't help there!

Pethidene makes me feel stoned. I've had it in the past for endo and had a hospital admission because the pain was so bad and I felt like I was high as a kite. When I had it with my 3rd birth, I had that and the gas and I was hallucinating, but I wasn't saying anything crazy because I was internalising it all and half asleep so it was just all in my head. However it didn't feel like that with my first birth, mainly because I had it during the night before labour really established so I could sleep.

I fall asleep on it, then get violently sick for days after having it. Talking to the midwives they think I am probably allergic to it, needless to say I never had it in labour only after previous surgery. I don't know why they use it as it's a nasty drug! I am not much better on morphine except for the morphine block during the c sect.

I morphene for dd's birth and i was off my face. It was like a bad dream that kept repeating itself. I thought that i had already had the baby and they were hiding it from me, i thought they were all lying to me and i was the butt end of their jokes. I still felt all the pain though - no different from just having the gas. When it came time to push i kept falling asleep. All that day - dd was born at 2.22am and i had the morphene around 1:30am - i couldnt stop talking and telling people way tmi. It was really weird and i'm not too sure id like to experience it again. I laugh about it now and dh said it was kins funny to see me that way but it was really real for me at the time.

Oh and i didnt really want it anyway - i was begging for an epidural and i was in the birth centre (no epis) so this apparently was the next best thing :( Both ds's and dd's births were prosterior and they stayed that way through the birth too - ouchies

I had pethadine when I had my first angel and then when I had DD. My birth with DD was induced and was 23hours long from getting the synto to her coming out. At about the 16hr mark I was begging for pethadine (cause the hospital doesn't do routine epidurals for birth) even though I remembered with my first angel it made me violently sick. I had it and it did seem to take some pain away, but I was vomiting and heaving for hours after. Luckily I was on the drip anyway becuase I was vomiting so much I had nothing left to come out. Each time I drank or ate ice, I would vomit it up. When DD was born, I'm not sure if it was just exhaustion, but I was sooo groggy and out of it and sleepy, I didn't care what they did with my baby, I just wanted to sleep. DD was preety out of it too and slept for aaages after she was born. I only noticed the difference when I had DS with a totally natural birth, and realised how out of it I really was and how sleepy and out of it DD was. I was on such a high after I had DS it took me hours to finally get to sleep, and DS suckled at the breast for about an hour after he was born. DD wouldn't even take a bottle properly for about 24hrs after birth. I truely think the pethadine hugely contributed to the horrible trouble I had trying to bf DD.

My midwives wouldn't give me pethadine, would not consider it, it was gas or epidural. I never thought to ask why, but I assume it'd be because of everything everyone is mentioning! So the fact that they wouldn't even give it to me has got to say something (maybe they figured it wasn't as effective and wouldn't shut me up as much but anyway... :p).

indadhanu, if ur relaxed in between contractions already they tend to not give it to u, because it actually does nothing for the pain just lets u rest in between ITM?

I might be the only person who had Pethadine and had it help. With DD1 I was induced due to Merconium stained waters and no real contractions. After 4 hours on the drip and no progress I had the Pethadine shot and fell asleep for a couple of hours. When I woke up I felt fine and within an hour was ready to push. I was told that Pethadine is a better option to have early in labour as it is a muscle relaxent and can help you with mild contractions. If your having really painful contractions then it wont help with them, just make you drowsey in between. Like most seem to have experienced. A close friend also had pethadine early on in labour with similar results to me.
I am however more then glad to say that DD2 was completely pain relief free (did not even get to use hot water because I never really thought I was close enough to birthing) and that was by far the best labour/birth.

i had peth with DS and now after having DD i know that it caused me to bleed more and made me and DS groggy for after probably 24 hours and made my recovery more painful and made BFing harder causing me to give up

with DD i did it drug free and it was a faster recovery and i was aware and awake it was awesome i definately reccomend it :)

It made me violently sick and I was sick for a couple of days later on it. I ended up with a c-section and couldnt even look at my baby when she was born because I was trying not to throw up. I made me very shakey too. When I moved my arms it was like I was watching it but had no comtrol on it

The only thing i found any effects from was the epidural.
With my first labour i had gas and pethadine and i felt neither did anything. With my second i tried gas.. again nothing.. didnt bother with the pethadine and went straight for the epidural. Best thing in the world if you ask me! Will be going straight for that this time round.

Thanks ladies for all your replies. I know I don't want a epidual, but is there nothing else.....

If you're wanting to avoid medical pain relief, make sure you're armed with alternatives. I found hot water a great relief, as well as hitting stress balls against the wall. I also had a TENS machine, and heat packs. I had water injections which helped with the back pain. I've heard Calmbirth techniques are great too. All of my pain relief techniques helped me avoid an epidural (and, I believe, a c-section).

Oh goodness, I hated pethidine. Never again! DD1's labour was induced and I had the synto cranked up to max - dilated from fully closed to 10cm in about four minutes! And of course, there was paaaaiiiiinnnnn. I have a phobia about catheters so wouldn't let anybody come within cooee of me with the mere suggestion of an epidural, I'd rather have died than have a catheter (not afraid of the needles involved at all, just a tube stuck in my peehole. Go figure.). So, my options (seeing as I was in a regional-area base hospital where your options for birthing are 1: on the bed, 2: on the bed, 3: on the bed, and NO WATERY PLACES ARE ALLOWED, not even a 10-minute shower before your waters break!) were either pethidine, gas, or a combination of the two. I tried gas at first, it hit me like smoking weed used to, took the edge off and made me a bit dopey but nothing major. Brought out the big guns with peth - hah! Felt sick, fell asleep between contractions but when they hit (every 25-40 seconds after coming down off the one before), I woke up literally screaming in pain, it didn't do a damn thing except make me feel awful and tired and I couldn't use my body to push efficiently any more as it was too slack from the drugs to get on with things. So I was just laying there thrashing around and yelling in excruciating pain, without being able to do anything to get my baby out, I started panicking and it all went downhill from there!

Second labour, I had a couple of puffs of gas to take the edge off again, I'm a former pot-head so I can keep a totally clear head through the haziness of the gas (even though it's a different drug entirely, the feeling is so similar that I know how to take it), refused any and all suggestion of peth, and had a fully posterior birth all by myself :) The experience was so much better. After DD1, I had a PPH and while it was near-fatal (Dr's words, not mine!), I believe I would have handled it better had I not been drugged out of my gourd and powerless to comprehend what was happening and still panicking about the birth - DD1 was safe and sound and I was so smashed and unable to understand what was happening, I remember thinking it was okay that I was dying because DH was going to look after DD1 and be an awesome father... Ugh. The memory is horrible. You're definitely not alone in those feelings. I'd never go for it again, after my own experience and hearing so many similar stories from others, I really wonder why they even offer it as an option! :/

Why the hell was your synto turned up so high?!

Me? Lol, because two doses of gel hadn't worked (let's not forget it was my first pregnancy and it was two days before my EDD, bub was in no hurry at all to come before she was ready!) and the midwives wanted to get me over and done with so as not to interrupt dear old Rosemary's retirement lunch. Hah. My body has this odd reaction to interference of any kind, it 'works' about five times quicker than it's meant to - like the time I had elastics put on my braces as a kid, I was in excruciating pain for two days and mum took me back to the orthodontist to make sure it was okay and he saw my teeth, gasped and said, 'Those elastics were meant to push your teeth together in six weeks, not 48 hours - what kind of a freak are you?!'... that kind of thing happens all the time lol :/ General anaesthetic that's meant to keep me knocked out for four hours? I'm not only awake, but walking around and eating cheeseburgers in under two hours lol. Superwoman or something, I guess ;)

But yeah, the midwife thought I was full of crap when my body started pushing on its own, 'Oh stop carrying on, you won't be dilated more than 4cm yet... *I scream at her to do an internal* Oh goodness, yep, you're 10cm alright, baby's head is right there, feel free to push whenever!' baaaah. Induction, never again :/

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Me? Lol, because two doses of gel hadn't worked (let's not forget it was my first pregnancy and it was two days before my EDD, bub was in no hurry at all to come before she was ready!) and the midwives wanted to get me over and done with so as not to interrupt dear old Rosemary's retirement lunch. Hah. My body has this odd reaction to interference of any kind, it 'works' about five times quicker than it's meant to - like the time I had elastics put on my braces as a kid, I was in excruciating pain for two days and mum took me back to the orthodontist to make sure it was okay and he saw my teeth, gasped and said, 'Those elastics were meant to push your teeth together in six weeks, not 48 hours - what kind of a freak are you?!'... that kind of thing happens all the time lol :/ General anaesthetic that's meant to keep me knocked out for four hours? I'm not only awake, but walking around and eating cheeseburgers in under two hours lol. Superwoman or something, I guess ;)

But yeah, the midwife thought I was full of crap when my body started pushing on its own, 'Oh stop carrying on, you won't be dilated more than 4cm yet... *I scream at her to do an internal* Oh goodness, yep, you're 10cm alright, baby's head is right there, feel free to push whenever!' baaaah. Induction, never again :/

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My gosh!! That's crazy!/

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during the transitional stage, I clearly became delirious and I'm wondering whether the pethidene would have contributed to the feeling of delirium?

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May have contributed, but this feeling of delirium during transition is a very normal response to your body's natural chemicals/hormones it releases during labour.
Pethadine makes me high as a kite, for about 20 mins, then I pass out. Not helpful! Would never take peth during labour, no desire for bubs to be drugged at birth. It is nasty stuff.

I Recommend the Tens machine, it's fantastic.

I was told by my midwife that Pethadine is extremely old fashioned and that particular hospie doesn't even offer it any more...I didn't care anyway as I had a painkiller free labour and birth.

I did have gas+air when my episiotomy was being stitched up (I had a PPH with episiotomy so he jabbed me with the local so fast before stiching that it hadn't kicked in when he started stitching) and omg, never again. Major trippiness. Have said it on BB before, but I literally saw the pattern on the room curtains jump off and dance away.

My experience with pethidene during labour was that it took only the slightest edge off the pain, but put me in a different space to cope with it...I was able to rest/snooze which was really valuable because I was beyond exhausted.

HOWEVER I had it a number of times during excruciating gallstone attacks and I can tell you it is *very* effective for that sort of pain (it actually lessens the spasming effect), so, just because you've found it unhelpful during labour, don't rule it out for future pain experiences of a different nature.

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My sister had pethidine for one of her labours and her way of describing it was "like being locked inside your body whilst you go through hell and not being able to tell anyone about it."

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That's exactly how I felt when I had the pethidine with my first son. I remember the midwife telling dh how well I was doing when I had it and I just wanted to scream that I was in hell. Swore I'd never do it again so this time I used just the gas and it worked really well for me. I managed to birth my 10 pound 4 boy with just the gas.

The hospital where I gave birth does not offer it for all the reasons above. The midwife at the antinateal class said it should be illegal.

Had peth with DD1 after about 6 hours of labour & only a few cm dilated; it was my last stop before an epi. Didn't do a thing, I wouldn't have even known I had it.
I didn't even consider it with my subsequent labours.

M2R, you might find your experience of labour completely different this time; very good advice from Persephone1, consider heat packs etc, water is great, I looooved the shower, TENS machines, even just moving around, swaying etc can help; all kind of things, not true that there is nothing else ;)

ETA - also, I think that sometimes second (or later) labours are easier because you are a bit more prepared for it; at least that's how it was for me. As I said above, I was looking for serious pain relief after a few hours when I had DD1, but with my later babies I laboured for longer with no pain relief; mentally I was a lot more prepared, a lot tougher & found it easier to deal with.
So you never know, might be heaps better for you this time :hug: