Radio 4 just now, woman in labour 'given paracetamol' for labour pain!

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just

I was sent home 36 hours after an emergency c section with paracetamol and ibuprofen. I was tempted to refuse discharge and stay for the oromorph.

I think the maternity services in the UK is absolutely dire.
Women are being treated like cattle, in fact, cattle are probably treated better during birthing.
When my first grandchild was born, I could scarce believe what I was walking into when I walked onto the post natal ward to visit.
My poor daughter in law was bruised and battered and not one nurse attempted to help.
I counted a total of 19 mums and babies on the ward, the noise was ridiculous, how is anyone supposed to get rest and recuperate on a ward like that?
I was even more shocked when she was discharged a mere two days later.
How many of these mother's will end up with gynecological problems a few years down the line due to being forced onto their feet literally as soon as they give birth?
Post natal mother's going hungry because they've missed meal times due to being busy giving birth? Having to get up and get your own breakfast? It's disgusting!
Now I read that gas and air is being taken away too! Paracetamol? What the hell good is a couple of bloody paracetamol to a labouring woman? I fully get that some women have a labour where paracetamol will get them through it, but there should be a choice. Unfortunately, choice seems to be forgotten for pregnant and labouring women, just like assistance is.
It's a bloody disgrace, insulting and quite frankly, unforgivable!
Have we returned to the eighteenth century? Turned into some backward thinking country?
I'm glad that I never had to experience the NHS maternity services when I had my children.

I can't believe after lots of horrific stories we have this: What does it matter if we say birthing person to make afew people happy? Does it do any harm?
Why should we not respect women? Why should women (51%) change their langage for 0.2% of the poulation? The words woman and mother are two of the oldest words in all languages. Show some respect for women please! (and I breastfed not chestfed my child). It is harmful to say 'birthing person' as it is confusing and could mean anyone, it downgrades the importance of women and mothers.

Does anyone know if it is just in maternity units that entonox is being withdrawn?

Ambulances and paramedics carry it I believe and I know if people who have been given it in emergency situations.
Plus in my clinical (non maternity) dept we use it occasionally for certain procedures - with very good effect. It's simple and patient controlled and just takes the edge off - the alternatives available to us would be IV opiates or sedation which would be entirely inappropriate for a quick procedure. We also use it with some children (not very young children obv) for these procedures.

And they refused to bring me food and said patients were supposed to go and get it themselves!!

Me too! I was still in bed because no one had come to disconnect my catheter and I'd had very low BP during the section so the surgeon had put in the notes that I was a high faint risk so needed two staff with me to give physical support the first time I stood up and walked in case my blood pressure tanked and I passed out. Breakfast time came so I rang the buzzer to ask if I could get some, I was told I'd have to walk to the day room (opposite end of the ward) and bring my breakfast tray back to my bed myself. Explained why I couldn't get up and was told they'd get someone to come disconnect everything and walk up with me. No one came.

Had my next baby in a different hospital and you could order food directly from your bedside TV then catering staff brought it to your bed. It was free and was hospital standard set meals but had a good range to choose from - toast, fruit, yoghurt, right through to proper meals like chicken curry, mince and dumplings, vegetable lasagne, and then desserts. I don't know if it was hospital-wide or just for the maternity unit but it was such a good idea and meant you could get food whenever you needed it.

I was induced and given two paracetamols when the contractions started. Four hours later as the pain worsened, I asked for some pain relief and the midwife said ‘they couldn’t give me anything else’ … not even more paracetamol. I didn’t question it at the time, as it was my first baby and just went along with it.

Also back in the day (1980's) on the postnatal ward Aspirin and Papaveratum was routinely given out - not just to post LSCS but just for after pains.
The Women loved it!

It's no longer available, aspirin can't be given to children so wouldn't be safe and it's a long time since I've seen Papaveratum offered for eg post op pain as it used to be. It's an opiate and I don't think it's available anymore. It probably made the babies sleepy and contributed to breast feeding problems.

But no one was complaining of lack of pain relief!

It really has gone from one extreme to another.

one or two were almost like surly teenagers doing work experience.

I got told in my first delivery that I was "fussing over nothing" and that I needed to go home and have a good sleep in my own bed when I tried to say I felt too ill to go home postnatally. Same nurse nearly shat herself when I rapidly declined and was found to have sepsis. I remember being in and out of consciousness and she came in the room to tell me that she hadn't told me to go home and that she didn't pressure me to discharge myself, did she? And if anyone asked could I remember that

I was chucked out 14 hours after my last section.

I honestly thought they were joking when they came round with the paper work. She was born at 9pm and by midday the next day, I was at home.

It was during covid and no one would help me out the hospital and dh wasn’t allowed in. I had to carry dd and my bag (which I had hardly opened, didn’t have time and I was in too much pain to get dressed, just went home in my dressing gown), through the hospital to the front door.

I almost collapsed on dh, he said I looked like I was about to drop walking down the corridor struggling with a baby and a bag but the security guard wouldn’t let him in to help me, ‘cos covid.

Still, it was better than my first one where I starved for three days. I had complications and was on a drip with a catheter. They wouldn’t bring me food to the bed, said I had to walk to the dining room but I was attached to things so couldn’t. When I said that, they shrugged their shoulders and walked off. Ex husband was a useless tosser who wouldn’t bring any food in as the midwives said I should be eating there, he said he wasn’t going to help me if I wasn’t going to help myself. I couldn’t win with any of them. When I could finally stand up, after 3 days of no food or water I fainted and haemorrhaged. Then some wanker of a midwife had a go at me for getting blood all over the floor.

Women always tell horrific stories of shit care. If your dog went in for surgery and was treated like that, you’d raise hell with the vet. But nothing changes for women.

With my first one emcs I was left for 12hrs on a drip alone ( 31st dec) with my baby trying to be born feet first through my pelvis , when I asked a nurse , she informed me the pain was normal then left !

Totally agree that things would be very different if men were the birthing parent. My first birth was so traumatic i had ptsd and five years later when i accidentally got pregnant again nearly had an abortion because i was so scared of having to go through the same shit show again. The UK has to be one of the worst first world countries if not the worst in which to give birth. Yet my experience in Turkey of maternity services was one were pregnant women were listened to and respected and well cared for in every aspect.

Eyerolling at the pp who said paracetamol was fine for early labour. When I was in early labour with my first, I was in absolute agony, so much that I kept being sick and my husband took me to the hospital. They stuck me in a room with other wailing women and gave me 2 paracetamol which, unsurprisingly, I promptly threw up. No alternative was offered.

I ended up having an EMCS under GA and the treatment I received afterwards was utterly barbaric.

I'd like to say my experience was better the second time around, but it was worse. A post for another day.

This is about labour in total - not just early labour.

🙄

Medals for those who laboured on 2 paracetamol. Your blue Peter badges are in the post.

My 4 day induction ended in a total spinal because paracetamol did fuck all.

I was given codeine and double strength ibuprofen to manage my 9 week MMC at home. Just goes to show.......

I gave birth twice in France. No gas and air but epidurals are standard. There are dedicated maternity anaesthetists so you never have to wait more than 1/2 hour max.

Own room afterwards, no wards, and a standard 3 day stay, where you are brought all your meals to your bed.

I got paracetamol afterwards but didn't need anything else. A friend who'd had a rough birth got morphine.

If men gave birth,this definitely would not happen. Just another example of women's pain being taken far less seriously than men's. When my Dd had kidney stones,she was given 2 paracetamol. When her DH had kidney stones,he was given a shot of morphine!

I gave birth for the second time in 2016. I asked for an epidural or Pethidine - I was given two paracetamol. Thankfully I didn't have to labour for too much longer but after a 24hr induction I was not best impressed.

Some of these stories are heartbreaking 🌺

I now have a full blown phobia of the hospital and I'm also scared of all but a few doctors and nurses.

I remember genuinely expecting to be treated like a human being. I expected brisk, but basically kind treatment.

Instead I got borderline psychopathic treatment. I will never forget feeling that vulnerable and helpless in the face of cold hearted apathy. It makes me feel panicky just thinking about it.

Once I'd given birth, I immediately felt like my child was in an unsafe environment (hormones kicked in massively) and demanded to be discharged straight away because if someone didn't let me go, I was going to break the door and leave anyway. I actually think I would have done it as well. Everything about the hospital now screams danger to me.

We were both fine to leave at that point. It was just paperwork that needed doing. But every fibre of my being was screaming at me to get out with the baby NOW.

Half my calf was torn off by a horse (think the pics are in Sporners corner) and the muscle was exposed. The yard owner asked my DH if my leg was still attached and he said it looked like an abattoir. Guess what the A&E staff put in the cannula?! Paracetamol!! I’d have laughed if I hadn’t been shaking uncontrollably.

Speaking to a mate who had brain surgery, she too was given paracetamol.

Bloody hell! I hope you very much didn't remember that. That's awful

IV paracetamol is a totally different kettle of fish to oral paracetamol. For one, it works faster (within 5 mins as opposed to 60+ mins), has a greater efficacy, can be given in larger doses than OTC tablets and the dose can be more closely tweaked to individual patients by height and weight.

IV paracetamol is comparable to morphine in terms of pain relief. Two tablets is not.

I did hope I'd hallucinated it but my notes show she was the one in the room with me while I was on continuous obs.

I complained when I was better and got the standard "lessons will be learned" response as well as apology for them not examining me and missing key indicators that all was not well.

Did they say on the radio whether it was tablets or IV? I only had IV paracetamol for birth and IVF complications and it was more than enough. I wouldn’t get outraged about paracetamol being offered without being sure of how it’s being delivered.