Diamorphine ??

[Sarahmarie2505]

hello lovely ladies :) this is my third dc I'm 30 weeks , trying to think of pain relief to put on my birthplan ? Only downside is I usually labour quickly and only have time for gas and air which did chill me out for my 2nd they also gave me pethadine which I dnt no if it did anything anyway? Is Diamorphine any good ? How early do you need to have it ?

Diamorphine is the medical name for heroin. I believe it is supposed to be similar to pethidine. I got completely smacked off my tits on pethidine but then I did have a long labour and four shots of the stuff!

I had diamorphine with my ds1 and then dilated from 4 to 10 in an hour so it ended up having been administered quite close to when he was born. I believe it was the reason he was very slow (5 days of cup feeding ebm!) to latch. If you labour quickly my advice (based on my experience) would be to avoid it and pethidine as it is likely to make baby very sleepy and may cause latch problems. I'm not in any way medically qualified though - just speaking from my own experience.

Also - I don't really think it helped with the pain - just made me talk some real shite to my mum and the midwife- was still in pain but also waffling utter nonsense at the same time!

Don't know about fast labour (I certainly did not have that problem!), but I found diamorphine very good, I didn't feel off my head, just felt it was enough to take the edge off the pain, so I could handle it (was induced with syntocin drip). I also used gas and air. HTH

I had and I also laboured fairly quickly. TBH I was in loads of pain despite the gas and air. I arrived at 10 pm 3cm dilated, diamorphine at 10.45pm 4cm, it's a bit like I stepped out for a few hours as it's very hazy. Came to (when they confiscated the gas and air) for the pushing bit around 3am. DS born at 3:30am, he was sleepy for the first night but fine after that.

For me it worked, I don't really care that I don't remember getting from 4cm to 10cm. If you're someone who likes to be in control it's probably a bad idea though.

I agree that pethidine made establishing feeding slow although my baby was doing better after 2 days fortunately. However since they wouldn't give me an epidural it was fairly unavoidable. With a short, non-induced labour I would have tried to avoid it though. Apparently I signed consent forms that I have absolutely no recollection of about having a c-section under GA. Didn't come to that, but the fact that I can't remember signing the forms is a bit worrying.

I agree with Rachel. I have no experience with labour and opiates but I had an ELCS with DD2 and was given Oramorph (pure, medical grade morphine) for immediate post-op pain control and she was sleepy. I think she went about 6 hours between feeds on the second day, so it defo passes either through the placenta and/or breastmilk.

Probably best to avoid it if you have a tendency to labour and deliver quickly if you want to avoid the effects on bub x

Thanks for your replies I was pretty out of it with my 2nd looking at it then it must have been the pethadine?

I would say so, yes x

Having said that, with Oramorph, I just felt happeeeeeeeeey ... But I still think pethidine whacks you out

Luna,

Is oramorph liquid you drink? Or needle..

Eliza it's the liquid drink. And I flippin' loved it!