Pethidine?

13 replies

polarbear1237 · 02/09/2023 01:22

Hey guys,
I'm due to give birth in November to my second baby and I'm looking to make more informed decisions this time around as far as pain relief is concerned.
Please can I have some stories / experiences from any of you who have had pethidine during labour previously? I've heard very mixed reviews so far!
TIA

OP posts:

MrsMous · 02/09/2023 01:47

I had pethadine and it was great. It made my dd very sleepy though and I struggled to breast feed her

cheeseandcrackers89 · 02/09/2023 02:55

I gave birth for the first time in April and found pethidine to be amazing. Midwife gave it to me at 3cm as I was finding the contractions very intense. It put me to sleep and when I woke up three hours later I was 10 cm and had a strong urge to push. My son was then born less than an hour later and I did not need any additional pain relief during the pushing stage.

Nursemumma92 · 02/09/2023 06:43

I had it with my first baby and for my second, the only thing that was in my birth plan was no pethidine.
It just made me vomit continuously, there was no relief of anything for me as I felt sleepy but couldn't stop being sick and just felt totally out of control.

QuiltedHippo · 02/09/2023 06:48

I didn't like it, it just made me fall asleep between contractions but didn't really help with the pain. I was also talking nonsense and it made everything blurry, wish I could remember my birth more. Wish I'd just had an epidural.
Plus side DD slept like a dream the first night so I got some rest though didn't help much when the rest of the ward was screaming.

My hospital used diamorphine rather than pethidine though so it might be different

Surlaplage · 02/09/2023 06:50

Just made.me sleep between contractions. I'd wake up in agony then fall back into a deep sleep until the next one came 3 minutes later.

mumonthehill · 02/09/2023 06:51

I had heard very bad things about it so did not have it for first birth. Second time around i was having very painful contractions but was not very dilated so they said if I had pethidine they could keep me in. It really helped me, immediate pain relief but does make you sleepy. I gave birth within 30 minutes of having it.

autumn666 · 02/09/2023 07:54

Just made me really sleepy so all I wanted to do was lie down, but lying down made the pain unbearable (back to back baby) so definitely didn't make anything easier.

isitspringyet23 · 02/09/2023 10:19

I had pethidine for my first birth. Very cloudy memories I don't remember it making me sleepy I do remember feeling out of it though. My body was pushing by itself but I wasn't fully dilated so the midwife suggested having it, to relax me to get me to 10cm
Baby did come quite sleepy and didn't feed immediately either.
In hindsight it helped me with the final stage of labour which without it I imagine would have been very traumatic - failed epidural, episiotomy, retained placenta, attempting to remove the placenta in the labour room (horrific but i don't remember any pain) failed spinal in theatre , then finally GA to remove the placenta and do the stitches .
I'm currently pregnant and although I'm open to pain relief (including pethidine again) I'm more wary of having an epidural or spinal as they both failed on me last time and punctured my spinal fluid so I needed a blood patch a few days after giving birth too which really affected my first few days with a new baby.

Beamur · 02/09/2023 10:26

I had pethidine and it was by far the best stage of my labour. I didn't feel sleepy but I did feel very relaxed and focused - the pain relief was very good. Baby wasn't sleepy when born either and was keen to feed. I think we both reacted well to it.

SweetAndSourChick3n · 02/09/2023 10:58

I loved pethedine. It let me sleep when I was exhausted but in too much pain to rest. They gave me anti nausea injections at the same time as each pethedine dose so it didn't make me feel sick.

DustyLee123 · 02/09/2023 10:59

It relaxed me and helped me dilate, I think I was fighting it !

JustPickleRick · 02/09/2023 11:05

I had pethidine as they said they couldn't sort an epidural out for me at that time. About 15 mins later, the epidural arrived so I was given a double whammy. I think I just went with it as I was so out of it! I didn't feel a thing... I also didn't end up progressing past 3cm and had to have a c-section. I genuinely think the mix of both was just too much for me, it was nice that I couldn't feel anything but it slowed me down. When my son was born, he was the quietest baby on the ward, we got moved to a room the second night as he was so quiet and all the other babies were not 😅 I think it was the effect of the pethidine on him.

bk1981 · 03/09/2023 08:48

I had diamorphine which is similar. Didn't take the pain away but did make hallucinate and fall asleep between contractions. My baby was very sleepy and struggled to feed. Next time I would go straight to an epidural.

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