Can you buy gas & air?

[Vine]

I have had 2 vaginal births and the second time the MW denied me gas and air when I first asked because she did not want me to burn all my bridges quickly!? When I did eventually get it (after begging) I managed fine and did not have an epidural. I may/may not have another child but wonder if you can buy entonox+mouthpiece to use at home in the early stages of labour? Probably a stupid question and the answer is no but I don't think I could cope with no gas & air until the later stages.

Assuming it's a 50:50 mix is pretty brave. Why does icecream need oxygen?

Whipped cream even.

It's used as a propellant I think.

It comes in little metal cartridges which you screw in to a container which is full of liquid cream and hey presto when you squirt it out the cream is 'whipped'. I've just done a search and it would appear that you can still buy it. We stopped having anothing to do with it when it became illegal to see it in clubs, it was shame for us tbh as it was a real money spinner.

If you use the canester without the cream you can squirt the nox into balloons and inhale it. You have to kind of re-breath it.

I found the effects were exacty the same as the g&a I had in labour when I had my DD ( i'd describe it as ticky and a mild halucionagen sp) but the stuff the had then I had surgery recently was completly different and just made me laugh.. I ont know if it is something to do with the %.

It was undoubtable a stupid and foolhardy thing to do but it was fun at the time.

i had it in all 3 labours, then when i needed spectacularly re-suturing they gave me some when they transferred me to the op table as i was in so much pain, the anaes did my spinal and i was still on the G&A, eventually he said 'is the spinal not working' and i said 'oh yes its working i just like the way my head goes all swimmy with this' . He allowed me one more breath and then took it off me

i had it for both lots of stitch removal too. Ive asked for it to have my mirena inserted but they're gonna do a GA instead

So am I the only woman in the entire world who hated G&A then? I found that it calmed the pain down from unbearable to just about bearable, which is why I kept using it, but it also made me forget what was going on, so I only knew that I was in loads of pain, but had no idea why.
I was watching old episodes of Friends while in early labour with DS, and it wasn't until the baby showed up in an episode that I remembered (briefly) what the hell was going on. When DH returned from sorting out DD's childcare I almost collapsed, because I thought that this lovely man coming back to support me was just a daydream I'd been telling myself, like winning the lottery.

No Dilys, lots of people don't get on with it, it made me feel a bit nauseous but I tried to ignore that and when I got past it it was great. Other people don't take it correctly therefore don't get the full effects so think it's a waste of time. You have to inhale deeply right at the start of a contraction and keep on inhaling until the contractions over or the pain has diminished. Then do it all over again for the next contraction otherwise it wears off and won't work.

I think women ought to be offered a snort of g+a before labour, so they have an idea as to whether they are going to find it useful or useless.
I'd used it a few times before getting pregnant and so was reassured that I'd at least like it during birth.

It's having a mask over your face that's potentially dangerous. THe arguement for banning selling balloons in clubs was that if people were standing up they might fall over and hurt themselves. The solution of just sitting down clearly wasn't good enough...

I bloody loved it, and, according to DH, I thought is was absolutely hilarious on it. I'm a very clean living sort of a girl but could get very fond of that stuff...

Entonox is a mixture of 50% NO and 50% oxygen. For analgesic purposes a concentration of up to 50% NO is recommended. For anaesthetic purposes a concentration of up to 66% is recommended (in conjunction with other drugs).

As far as I can see those whippy canister things are saying that they are "pure" NO, which I'm taking to mean 100% concentration. I wouldn't risk it, personally.

That said, I got through a LOT of G&A during my (failed attempt at a) homebirth. At one point the midwife couldn't open a new cannister, I was ready to commit GBH until my husband produced his nerdy box of every spanner, key, etc known to humankind and got the fucker open. I have NEVER loved that man as much as I did at that moment

ps tho Vine I think your midwife was completely out of order in witholding it from you

I loved gas and air. So much so that I wouldn't let DP any where near the stuff even though beforehand we said he'd have a crafty go when the midwife wasn't looking.

DD obviously takes after her mother because when she broke her arm aged 10 the paramedic gave her some G&A and she was really going for it. She was giggling like a loon and going back for more after a few seconds!!

Magic stuff - like going from stone cold sober to completely pissed in 3 seconds. Fuck all use during the contractions but in between them I felt absolutely super! (And even more special after the diamorphine kicked in) :) The absolute highlight of labour second only to the spinal I had for the EMCS. Anaesthesia in all its forms is a truly marvellous thing!

PS no you can't buy it unfortunately.

When I was in labour, I was telling the midwife that she should open a bar where you could hire a warm pool to sit in and G&A on tap. I think I'd said that I'd pay a good £60 an hour for it!

Fucking hell.

I saw scottishmummy and thought she was back

ZOMBIE FUCKING THREAD

It can have a disastrous effect on your bone marrow leading to some very nasty illnesses. That why they don't want you having too much too soon.

Have to wonder why anyone would bump a sixyear old thread to announce they have a large amount of a controlled substance.

What come in the little cannesters is pure nitrous oxide. If you breathe that for too long (more than a minute or so) you pass out through hypoxia like if you held your breath! Entonox has fifty percent oxygen which means that doesn't happen, so it's important not to muddle the two!

Ah, only just noticed this thread's zombie-ness....