Pethidine and childbirth - your experiences please

[Snaf]

I'd love to hear about your experiences with pethidine during labour. This info is purely for my own benefit - I had a situation yesterday that got me thinking about the use of pethidine for pain in labour and would really like to know what MNer's experiences have been.

You don't have to answer any/all of these but I'd be interested to know: Did you request pethidine, or were you offered it? Were you told about the possible side-effects for you and/or the baby? Were you told about the timing issues i.e: about giving it too near to the delivery? Did it help/did you like it/hate it? Do you feel it had any effect on the baby once born? Did you breastfeed after having pethidine? Would you have it again? (in labour, that is )

Any answers much appreciated!

When I had dd1, i had put it on my birth plan.

Just a bit of background

Water broke early in the morning, went straight to hospital as i wasn't having contractions. Was examined by the dr to see why i was bleeding and was 9cm dilated, still only having the occassional contraction.

Senior Midwife came in read my notes then went out came back and just gave me an injection which put me to sleep for 4 hours. At no point was i or DH asked whether i wanted it as i could have managed with just G&A.

DD1 was born about 15mins after i came round.

I had an induction, labour started immediately but didn't progress well. I found it useful to help me get some sleep while nothing much was happening.

Hi Snaf.

I had it in my second labour, which was a VBAC.

I had been labouring at home, contractions from 07.30 , i went to the hospital about 10 hours later, when they were 4 - 5 minutes apart. Was given G&A, then checked, and told i was 2 cm , and not in labour.. G&A taken away and given paracetomal and told would have to go to AN ward. baby's heart rate going through the roof at this point, no doubt due to my distress. so stayed on labour ward

mw said baby posterior so needed to move with the ctx and not use gas and air, and she would see how i was getting on in an hour.

an hour later i was 3 cm, that hour was the worst of my whole labour, i was convinced dd was going to rip through my abdomen, the movements she was making were horrific. i was screaming so loud for the gas and air back the MW came running in !

once i knew i was 3 cm, i begged for more pain relief, as i thought i would not get through another 18 hours without anything stronger than g&a.

she gave me a small dose, and it relaxed me and between ctx i felt really rested, they were 2 mins apart lasting over a minute , so it gave me the illusion of rest

what confused me was that i was still in pain!! but coping better as did not have that terrifying, oh god heres another one tension going on

i dilated from 3 to fully in 2hours 45 and pushed baby out in 30 minutes. no intervention or further pain relief

baby was alert with good apgars and fed soonish after birth ( bottle , the breastfeeding is a whole other story )

i was not told anything about the timing of it, but was given a small dose, based on how slow my labour had been, i suppose they thought it would not be too close to delivery.

i would not have it again, purely for the fact i know i could cope much better, as my second labour wsa like a first for me, as i had induced labour first time with epidural and diamorphine, so felt nothing. ended up with c.s

i felt for me, it was appropriately given and had no ill effects on me or the baby, and had worn off sufficiently that i was able to push in a controlled way and was aware and alert, baby was alert at birth

HTH

I had it in labour for DD1, made me feel completely out of it not at all in control and there are a few hours during labour where I have no idea what happened.

So to answer your questions........

I was offered it..I really wanted gtas and air first but stupidly didn't question it when they just offered pethidine straight away.

I wasn't told at the time of possible side effects but had done some reading myself so I was aware of them but I suppose they didn't know this.

I didn't like it in hindsight, but at the time it did the job I suppose. But I could also have been told to mobilise more, concentrate on breathing or just been given gas and air, I also b;lame it for having a forceps delivery as I spent a large part of labour just lying on the bed in a strange sort of delirium, but of course will never know if things could have been different had I not had it.

No I don't feel it had any effect on the baby once born but had probably left system by that time.

Yes we breastfed straight after delivery fine and DD1 was wide awake and alert after delivery.

No I wouldn't have it again (and didn't during DD2 birth)

Used it with baby 1. It helped massively when i was struggling with just how painful and powerful the contractions were. I'd have used it again if I'd ever felt that way again. But my DS was very very sleepy for 48 hrs and I think it made it harder to establish bfing. Don't know if pethedine contributed to that or not.

I was offered it - fairly forcefully and on about 3 occasions, during a long and difficult posterior labour. I had suspected it would made me sick but the midwife said it wouldn't because it was administered with an anti-emetic.

Anyway, had it and was sick for hours afterwards. Disorientated too. It was nightmarish tbh.

V. sleepy baby who was hard to bf - got there in the end, but it was tough and she was very jaundiced in the first week, which wasn't a good thing.

I honestly think the midwife wanted me to take it so I would leave her alone - I'd been very needy up to that point. Once I had it I went a bit quiet - fell asleep (in between being sick).

Wouldn't touch it again.

Have since found out I have something called 'Gilbert's syndrome' which about 5 - 15% of the population have. Basically you don't produce a particular enzyme which enables your liver to effectively process certain drugs, so you tend to do worse with opiates. Maybe that's why pethidine was so horrible for me.

Horrible, horrible, horrible.

Didn't take away the pain, just made me feel drugged up in a really bad way, and sick and faint.

Would never consent to have it again.

Ok basically I was offered 2 paracetamol by a mw (not my mw iyswim) as I would have "another 10-12 hours to go" and my mw said she would come back off her break and give me pethidine (tbh she thought I was an over-reacting first-timer that wasn't even in labour ). I wasn't offered any other pain relief. She 'told' me about the pethidine, mentioned nothing about the effect it would have on the baby, nothing about the timing. Did not even check what stage I was at even though she could see I was obviously in a lot of pain. Gave me the pethidine. I wanted to push about 5 mins later, 1 hour later baby was born. She was very sleepy, didn't cry at all in hospital except when nurses were trying to latch her on. I gave up trying to breastfeed because it was really upsetting me seeing how upset baby was when trying to latch on. No-one told me it could be the pethidine or that it could stay in her system for 5 days.

I would not have it again. It made me feel quite sleepy so in between pushes I was falling asleep and felt really in & out of it.

Horrible, horrible, horrible.

Didn't take away the pain, just made me feel drugged up in a really bad way, and sick and faint.

Would never consent to have it again.

I said at the start of labour it was the one thing I wanted to try to avoid as I didn't want to feel too out of it and wanted to try to feel as in control as possible...midwife said i'd never be in control in labour, it's not possible.

At the first sign of pain/tiredness she asked if I wanted some, I kept saying no but she kept on so in the end I had some. I didn't like it and felt very sleepy and did in fact sleep for a long time but I find it hard to remember much about that bit of labour at all apart from the whole concept of hypnobirthing being chucked out of my mind!!

I ended up having to have another go on it later on as she kept saying I ought to and again I felt pressured into it and as if that was my only pain relief option. Ended up with an emergency section quite shortly after that and I felt totally out of it really until the next day although I did hold my DS and try to feed him, I just could have slept for hours and hours (which DS did.)

I failed miserably at breast feeding, it was a really busy hospital where no one had the time to spend with me. I breast fed for the first week or so and then moved over to mixed feeding by expressing my milk. Although I had read that pethidine can make a baby sleepy it was never really reiterated to me as this being part of the problem with feeding.

I HATED IT! I was offered it as the MW knew they couldn't get me an epidural for another 3 hours and DS was back-to-back to very painful. I had it, and then lost all control (and consciousness). I only 'woke' for the contractions so it felt as though I was in a permanent contraction. Eventually got my epidural and felt a lot better. I also had chronic SPD so couldn't have an active labour as I was completely immobile anyway, so I wasn't worried about the epidural keeping me on the bed.

However.... DS slept for 24 hours after birth and we struggled to get breastfeeding established (there were a few other reasons for this, not least his little jaw being pushed out of alignment by the forceps).

After the birth the bruising from the site of the pethidine injection was horrid and it hurt far more than my fanjo!

Yuck, yuck, yuck, never, ever again!!

I had it with DS. I went in at 3cm asking for pain relief and was offered pethedine so said yes. I felt out of it but in a good way. I had some more 4 hours later. They wouldn't give me anymore after that as they said I was too close to the birth and was only given G & A. DS was born 8 hours after the second lot. He latched on straight away but was very sleepy for the next 2 days. I really struggled to establish breastfeeding and gave up soon after.

With DD I had a nice homebirth with only G & A. She latched on straight away and fed constantly for days

I really do think the pethedine left DS drowsy even though he had high apgars and wouldn't have it again. My midwives at my homebirth helped me find more comfortable ways to labour and I really didn't feel like I needed it at all.

With my first labour - pethedine was heave - I couln't have kept still long enough to an have an epidural administered with out it.

In my second labout it made me haloucinate. Teh staff seemed to be wearing strange colouur, the bed seemed ver pink - very high and very narrow when I was asked to climb onto it. However, it was a very fast labour and so DS probably had a good amount in him when he was born - and was very awake for a good few hours - and perfectly able to latch on an fee immediately after birth.

I also had it when I was pregnant with DC1 and had a kidney infection - the it was fantastic - my DB said that's because the fist hit you ever have is the best.

heaven.

I also had really bruised legs like Ineedmorechocolatenow.

I haven't had it, but did you see the thread I posted awhile ago? A woman who I was in hospital with was given it and slept through her baby being born! She woke up to find it in her PJ bottoms.

That's interesting about the Gilbert's syndrome GabyGirl - might explain the discrepancies in people's experience of it.

I absolutely loved it, my only complaint was that they wouldn't give me more of it! I never felt uncomfortably 'out of it', and there was no way I got any sleep on it as I was having strong contractions every couple of minutes. It just felt pleasantly relaxing and spacey. Not pain relief as such, but helped me to relax between contractions.

I'm not exactly sure about my timing - I think I had it at around 3 to 4 hours before delivery. It was an induced birth - fast and frequent contractions commencing about 11pm with birth at 4.30am.

The MW seemed v keen for me to have it - I was quite distressed by the time I was (finally) examined and allowed into the labour room at 6cm dilated. My birth plan said that I wanted to avoid it if poss as I had read about the side effects, but I was glad she persuaded me as things turned out. The MW didn't advise me of side effects at the time, but I had been to plenty of ante-natal NHS stuff which gave you all the info beforehand.

DD latched on with no probs (around 1/2 an hour after the birth, after I had been stitched up) and breastfed successfully to 14 months.

I don't know if it had any effect on DD before birth - she became distressed but I think that was due to cord round neck, then she was delivered via ventouse. Her apgars were fine.

I'd definitely have pethidine again, though it would be a toss up between that and an epidural on a birth plan. (Though imo birth plans aren't worth the paper they're written on anyway!)

had it after a very long and painful pre-labour. Helped me sleep for an hour or two max but didn't take the pain away really. Was followed by an epidural, which was bliss!

oh, sorry, don't remember being told about side effects etc. Tbh I was obviously clearly a long way from giving birth (induction didn't work really) so maybe they thought this sort of advice wasn't so important.

i had it with my DD and would have it again if needs be. i had it 2.5hrs before birth inc delivery which was 40mins. i needed something to take the edge off as they were right ontop of each other. other than that was completely pain relief free and thats how i'd keep it with my next one.
was told about the side effects, also i couldnt have it mixed with anti-nausea drugs as i'm allergic to them. but didn't feel ill on it. i bottle fed DD - breast feeding is a different issue

I was induced for DD (actually both DD and DS)

The 2nd pessary 'didn't work' so they booked me in for a c section the next day and gave me the 3rd pessary. About an hour, I was dialated about 2 inches, but was in extreme pain, so got pethadine. Felt more dopey than anything else.

About an hour later, I was in dreadful pain, and the midwife told my DP to run a bath. He was fairly insistent that I needed to be examined.

I was 10 cm dialated , so went to delivery suite and 10 minutes later DD was born (or caught )

Pethadine isn't a huge help for pain. Just makes you not care...

I wouldn't have it in labour because I have had it for pain relief in other situations and for me, it doesn't actually relieve the pain. Just makes me feel sick and spaced out.

I saw a consultant anaesthatist last week to discuss pain relief options should I need to go into hospital. First thing I said was "Well I don't want pethidine as it is rubbish for me." She replied "Yes, it is rubbish for most women." I wonder why they keep offering it then, especially as it has such a detrimental effect on BF for a lot of babies

ilovemydog - yes what is it with the frigging baths

I went into full on labour (after induction) in the ante natal ward at about 11pm, the MW just kind of looked blankly at me and said well what kind of pain relief do you want? Er I dunno - would be nice to know what the hell is going on as I haven't done this before

She offered me paracetamol and suggested a 'nice relaxing bath' Being in labour in a bath on my own in a windowless room was actually the worst part of my whole labour, with blood pouring out, full on contractions etc - not so much because of the pain but because of the psychological shock at being on my own in that situation. (sorry, slightly off topic there )

HORRIBLE

It made my DS very sleepy at birth, I wasn't told this could happen. We couldn't get BF established so he was FF.

I have been told since I have been pregnant again that the pethedine will have affected the BF.

Will not be having it again.

Wow, thank you everyone. Will have a good read through - am sure there is lots of food for thought here!