Pethidine more "druggy" than epidural?

[Stokey]

Watching OBEM, some of the women who have pethidine seem really out of it - there was the midwife who said it felt like she was in a club.

With my first, I had a very long labour and about 24hr after waters broke went into hospital to be induced. By this time I was exhausted having not slept for two nights and had to go into labour ward and get hooked up so had an epidural, gas and air didn't have any effect. It was fine for pain relief and meant I could - not sleep - but get some rest. But when I finally was dilated, although I did push for an hour or so, I needed a forceps delivery and episotomy.

Am hoping with my second to try the maternity unit and water birth, as should dilate quicker. But am worried I will need pain relief, and am a bit freaked out by how out of it people seem on pethidine. The epidural relieved the pain but didn't make me feel at all trippy or liek I had to tell my husband I loved him 100 times

Any positive experiences with pethidine?

i had pethidine and it was great. it was the gas and air that made me 'drunk'

would rather have the pethidine then a epidural anyday

Sorry no, felt completely out of it as was my baby when he was born, very sleepy. Didn't have it with ds2, home water birth felt much more in control.

I felt like they offered me the pethidine to shut me up TBH. I declined it initially but they were pestering me to have it.

I feel it was why DS was so sleepy and crap at feeding to start with so in hindsight I would have continue to decline it and continued to be a PITA

I was pestered and pestered to have pethedine despite being clear I didn't want it.

I had it as they were refusing both epidural and gas and air and I became beside myself.

It was horrid. It made me feel frightened and even more panicked but removed my ability to complain about it. I remember the mw saying to dh 'she's much clamer now isn't she?' when I was crying and screaming inside and anything but calm.

I believe they did it just to shut me up as I was screaming the place down and 2cm.

I was given pethidine in both labours and I can honestly say I don't think it had any effect on me or the babies. It's definitely the G&A that gives the spaced out effect ime.

I had pethidine with my first labour and it put me to sleep for 4/5 hours. I refused it with my 2 other births.

I personally liked pethidine but I was way away from giving birth (1st baby) and was already knackered from being up all night so needed to doze. I also quite like that 'out of it' feeling (to my shame).

It can definitely disagree with some people and worth avoiding if the baby could get up speed and arrive imminently or if you are someone who like to stay 'with it' and more in control.

It's an individual choice but i didn't like the fact that it could pass through to the baby and is afterall from the heroin family.

I have a friend who had a quite extreme reaction to pethidine. She was advised not to have it again. She, however, thought it was amazing and neglected to tell anyone involved in her 2nd pregnancy about the reaction. She was hellbent on having another go.

I had diamorphine and liked it, yes it made me feel out of it for a couple of hours but it meant I could sleep and get some rest which was desperately needed in a long labour! Gas and air also made me feel very sick.

I didn't like it at all, I felt completely helpless and don't remember much of the birth. baby was born blue and floppy and needed oxygen probably because of it (was only given it about an hour before birth).

I had in total 2 x shots of Pethidine and an Epidural as DD decided that she was quite happy to remain in my belly

I felt that I lost control completely after the 1st shot of Pethidine and it didn't help me to sleep or seem to help with the pain at all. I think it made me worse as I felt like I had lost control which really scared me. God only knows why they thought a 2nd dose a few hours later would have a different effect

It was only when I got an epidural that I got some sleep (I had been awake for 42 hours by this point so this could have helped!)

I hated it, it made me almost hallucinate. At one point I suggested to dh that we should go to a club I firmly believe it was given to me to shut me up and i should have been offered an epidural instead.

Thankfully my second labour and delivery couldn't have been more different and it wasn't even mentioned.

They had to give dd a jag to stop her from being sleepy as they gave me pethidine as pain relief and I delivered her less than 2 hours later. It wasn't pleasant for me. I found small doses of diamorphine much better.

First dose sent me to sleep, second dose did bugger all. DD1s head was still firmly resting on my sciatic nerves making my legs hurt like hell.

on a 3 day induction I had a shot of morphine rather than pethidine, and didn't feel anything (didn't even seem to take the edge off the pain.. stung going in and left a lovely bruise for a while though) - had an epidural about an hour and a half later and got a bit giggly then fell asleep - but I don't know if that was exhaustion followed by the relief of the epidural, or hang-over from the morphine or what caused the slightly drunk feeling.

I was given it during my labour with dd2. I was 33 weeks and my midwife wouldn't examine me to see if I was dilating and at midnight came down to my room and told me I had to have it. I refused, as it can affect the baby, she kept on about it saying I wasn't coping! She jabbed it in anyway :o about An hour later I pressed the button and my old neighbour who was a midwife came down, I asked where my midwife was, to be told she was on lunch!! She examined me after I begged her. I was 8 cms dilated and dd2 was born an hour later, so less than 2 hours after the pethidine! Her apger scores were rubbish and she wasn't breathing properly!
I believe I was given it to shut me up as midwife wanted a peaceful lunch!!

Not sure where the random came from lol.

Epidural doesn't make you feel drugged (can make you feel shakey though) but Pethadine does, it doesn't do much for the pain, you still feel it, it just makes you forget about most of it afterwards. Whether you like it or not depends on if you don't mind feeling a bit out of control, it also causes memory lapses which I hated. I had it with my first before I had an epidural and it was horrible, I've had it while not in labour (OHSS) and I liked it then because the pain I had was constant, with contractions coming and going I hated the druggy feeling when I had no pain, hated feeling out of control and there are large parts of his labour that I can't remember properly. I haven't had it with my other three, had G&A with no.2, epidural with no.3 and a few mins of G&A with no.4, I avoid pethadine like the plague in labour now.

i was induced over 2 days so had pethidine, gas and air AND an epidural.

got the pethidine on the pre-labour ward when i'd had strong and close contractions for about 5 hours but still wasn't even 1cm. it relaxed me, spaced the contractions out a bit so gave me some relief but it did not reduce the pain and i felt very fuzzy headed.

got gas and air when i eventually got to 1cm and was moved to the labour ward while waiting for epidural. again it did nothing for the pain but made me feel out of it. i remember thinking the curtains looked weird and noting that was probably the gas and air but that also they looked weird! didn't like it at all.

epidural was nothing like the other 2, yes your pretty much immobile (i could still feel my legs and although didn't even try standing could lift my bum up if they were changing the mat under me or anything), but the pain completely disappeared with no nasty side effects in my head. i was able to get some sleep and start looking forward to the birth rather than focusing on the pain. thank god for it coz DS wasn't born for another 13 hours. defo my favourite of the 3!

Thanks for all your stories - in general seems to be what I suspected. It can help but I did like the fact that with the epidural I knew exactly what was going on.

Will aim for all natural water birth and pray for a quicker experience...

If not, think I would go epidural again over pethidine, although it does make it harder to push. Tho to be fair to my midwife, she did let me go up on knees holding on to back of bed to push but could only sustain for about half an hour as legs were numb from epidural.

Epidural is an analgesic.

Pethidine is primarily a powerful sedative with some analgesic properties.

Some people really appreciate being heavily sedated during labour and find it helps them get through it.

Other people loath the idea.

I fall on the 'loath it' side, but I have friends who had a LOVELY experience with pethidine.

Pethidine made me throw up horribly when I had it with dd. I have stated on my notes this time that it's not to be even offered to me, but my midwife said they don't use pethidine anymore, it's diamorphine now. Is there actually any difference? I'm guessing if I didn't like the pethidine then I'll not be a fan of this either.