Diamorphine & Pethedine - do they work, what were your experiences of them?

[Taffindra]

I had an epidural with DS1, which obviously works brilliantly and is the last word in pain relief! I know its not always that quick or easy to get an epidural, especially if they are busy with c-sections - so can anyone tell me what they thought of Diamorphine or Pethedine? And if you have one of these, can you not then have a epidural at a later stage? I'm hopefully going to be at St.Thomas's - I've heard they don't do Pethedine...can anyone confirm that?

Pethidine didn't help with the pain - but it made me so spaced out I couldn't be bothered complaining about it.

Twiga, IKWYM re. G&A, it never helped me at all, just made me feel sick and dizzy, and did nothing for pain relief!

Don't know what I'm going to do this time as last time I had a waterbirth, but there is no pool at the hospital I will be at this time - might just have to wing it and hope I survive without anything!

I had Diamorphine during an induced labour - did slightly dull the contractions for a while, but wore off after 4 hours and they couldn't give more than one injection, so I had all the pain at the end of labour, when it is hardest to bear, w/out any relief.

I think that you probably can have a epi at a later stage, but by the time I asked for one they said it would slow labour down and the baby would be coming soon, so it was not worth it - still had two hours of pushing with no pain relief.

Sorry probably not much help!

I really don't think that they should give syntocinin without offering an epidural and explaining that it seriously increases pain during labour (my gp was shocked that that had happened to me btw).

I felt that I had had a really painful labour and was surprised when other people told me that they found it sore but not really awful until the aforementioned gp explained that syntocinin really increases the strength of contractions and makes them more painful. Unfortunately he told me this a week AFTER ds was born.

Not a single midwife explained this to me in the lead up to labour, or when they had to put me on the drip.

Miaou, thought about hiring/buying a pool and staying at home?

Made in Water

or Birth pool in a box . Here they mention taking it in to the hospital....

I had pethidine and I'm not convinced it did much for my pain relief but it did seem to make ds very drowsy which lead to big problems trying to establish breastfeeding. I am going to try to avoid it with my second child due next month mainly because I want to have a better go at breastfeeding.

i know this is an old thread but thought I would put my pennys worth in.

I had diamorphine and I slept for a bit. wont be having it next time as it made me feel really drugged up, would rather have an epi altho i have no experience of this.

Going to try natural if all else fails will do the epidural.

i really don't want to scaremonger at all and i do know people who have loved pethidine, but when i had my ds at home last year i asked my mw about having pethidine in case the G&A wasn't enough and she said "do you really want to give you baby class A drugs?" - and she wasn't being sarcastic..
found that G&A was great myself but probably because they didn't give it to me til i was pushing so i was v desperate by that stage!

Yeah cos diamorphine is effectively heroin was what our midwife said

I would not have coped without pethidine. I was concerned about having it, so the MW gave me a half dose (50mg). It knocked me out and I slept for 40 minutes. It was the first rest I'd had in 3 days and it took me from completely not coping to having the strength for 2 hours of pushing. TBH I was very keen not to have it when I drew up the birthplan, but DH suggested it, and I'm glad I kept an open mind.
And talking of drugs, a MW friend of mine has assured me that pethidine abuse is quite a problem in some areas.

I don;t think that many places offer diamorphine.
I had it and it was terrific.

I had Pethidine and it was horrendous.

I actually thought I was going to die after dd was born.
I couldnt focus on anything and felt incredibly drowsy like I'd been given a cocktail of drink and drugs.

I couldnt feed dd either.

I had diamorphine when I had dd and loved it. I had I think two injections, our hour apart, it had worn off after about 3hrs though and I spent the next two begging the midwife to let me have some more
It made me very giggly and silly and dramatically dulled the pain of the contractions without taking it away altogether.

I'd have it again

That should say I had them four hours apart and it wore off after 2hrs!

I had dia-morphine with both DS and DD (our local hospital doesn't offer pethidine).

Both times it made me throw up. With DS it sent me to sleep, and I was trying to push him out for over two hours.

With DD I said "will it make me fall asleep like it did with DS" to be told that no it wouldn't. Unfortunately I was right - I started drifting off again and had to have a scary doctor come and tell me after my two hours of ineffectual pushing that if I didn't get on with it, they have to help her out. As DS was born wuth forceps I didn't want that again and so pushed her out .

It didn't make either DS or DD sleepy, andf it did take the pain away, but I would rather not have had it with DD I think.

have only read the op but i had both(one shot of pethidine and 3 of diamorphine)when having ds1 and they did nothing for the pain,made me too sleepy to push and gave me hallucinations.also made it almost impossible to bf as ds1 was asleep for the first 4 days.

had just pethidine with dd1-again did nothing for the pain and just made me feel like i'd drunk 3 bottles of vodka and had no energy to do anything.

with my last 3 i had G+A only,and it was wonderful.i was awake and alert enough to breathe properly,and listen to the MW,and to move around,plus my natural painkillers kicked in and it was great,so much easier then giving birth drugged up to the eyeballs.plus the first 2 needed suction and oxygen when they were born,which was due to the drugs,my last 3 cried straight away and i was able to have skin-skin which was lovely.