Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Childbirth

Share experiences and get support around labour, birth and recovery.

Flip

1 2 3 4

Original poster

pethidine - positive experiences?

77 replies

iamamummy · 16/08/2009 23:00

hi ladies

I am due to give birth in 5ish weeks hopefully at home if the midwives agree.

All i have heard is negative stories about pethidine and how out of control/sick it makes you feel. so when i gave birth to ds1 i never really considered it.

I just want to know is it really that bad?

thanks

OP posts:

thesecondcoming · 18/08/2009 23:43

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Ineedsomesleep · 19/08/2009 08:09

I don't think Goober is out of order, she had a really bad experience, one which she wouldn't want others to have. Did you not read my post about everyone nearly dying?

Pethidine can make your labour 6 to 8 hours longer. It will make intervention more likely and can make breastfeeding more difficult.

The best advice I ever got was Gas & Air won't stop the pain, but it will take enough of the edge for you to get through it.

They wouldn't give me Pethidine for obvious reasons, see my earlier post.

Had the Gas & Air both times and was sick for about 5 mins the first time but as I'd been sick almost constantly for 9 months it didn't make much of a difference.

If you are thinking of taking Pethidine, make sure you fully understand the possible side effects before going into labour.

l39 · 19/08/2009 08:11

I saw my midwife yesterday to make birth plans and got many leaflets, including 'Pain Relief in Labour' written by the Obstetric Anaesthetists Association. The leaflet lumps pethidine in with diamorphine as 'Opioids' and says, word for word that 'It has less effect on pain than Entonox.' [page 7] I'm rather shocked by that. I knew it didn't work well for me but had no idea it isn't even expected to be as good as gas and air, which at least dissipates in seconds if you stop inhaling it, whereas the pethidine is in your system for hours.
I felt the pethidine was for the benefit of the onlookers not me, as it made me silent and still - I could hear them saying 'Doesn't she look peaceful now?' and wanted to yell 'I'm still in agony!' but I couldn't talk!

Ineedsomesleep · 19/08/2009 08:14

The cousin who gave me the advice about Gas & Air had had Pethidine with her first labour and felt the same also. She said she felt as though she had been given it so that the MW could have a break. She had Gas & Air the second time and had a much better, and shorter time of it.

thesecondcoming · 19/08/2009 08:43

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

skybright · 19/08/2009 09:10

l39

I can kind off see that thinking about it,i had diamorphine with my first...eight hour labour,pethidine with my second about a 2.5 hour labour ,pethidine given 20 mins before i gave birth and water pool with gas and air in my third labour,the opioids for me were not all that fantastic,you still feel pain and gas and air does take the edge off in a very similar way but you are far more in control.

Even after my second getting stiches without gas and air but with pethidine was sorer than with my third with gas and air alone.

mejon · 19/08/2009 09:21

I had it but didn't really feel that it had any effect on me - though reading here how sleepy it made people, I do now remember that between contractions I was sort of nodding-off (as much as I could in the circumstances). I didn't feel spaced out and still felt pain - in fact the gas & air did nothing for me either until I'd given birth and was being stiched up. That's when the 'here but not here' feeling kicked in (that was quite nice!).

I do remember that the site of the injection on my thigh was incredibly sore for several days afterwards and it was painful to walk.

juuule · 19/08/2009 09:29

I had it.
No effect whatsoever on the pain. Made me feel drunk and out of control. Staff ignored me with comments of "she's out of it".

reikizen · 19/08/2009 09:31

From a professional point of view I would say you probably won't need pethidine for a home birth, and I would avoid it because of possible problems with the fetal heart rate and feeding following delivery. If available in your area, I would suggest diamorphine as a better alternative from my experience but avoiding them both is best!

AmazingBouncingFerret · 19/08/2009 09:41

I didnt mind it, felt like I was 17 and at Gatecrasher again!!

Ineedsomesleep · 19/08/2009 18:12

secondcoming, glad that you and others have had a good experience. I don't feel that I was trying to add drama or give the impression that I had a bad birth experience. In fact, you read my posts on other threads you will see that I had 2 very positive birth experiences.

What I will say though is that both times I did not concentrate on taking a substance that could have an adverse effect on my baby, the length of the labour, intervention or breastfeeding. What I did concentrate on was getting the baby out. I just wanted to be in and out of hospital as quickly as possible.

LynetteScavo · 19/08/2009 18:15

I loved pethedine when I had a kiney infection at 23 wekks pg....I hated it when I was in labour with DS2 and it made me haloucinate....the midwives were wearing pink and the bed was 10ft high and 1ft wide, and I was still expected to climb on to it. Difficult.

Wonderstuff · 19/08/2009 18:31

I loved pethidine. G&A worked well and pethidine gave me a nice floaty feeling. I do remember saying to the mw 'how do people do this without drugs? seriously?' To which I got a 'yes dear' response.

However my memory of the first few hours with dd is hazy and for that reason I would try to go without next time (should there be one)!

I was very keen to avoid epidural, and would take it again if I felt I really needed to.

DD had no trouble bfing. I think I was given it about 4 hours before delivery. They were just about to top it up when I got the urge to push.

Gillyan · 19/08/2009 19:47

I wouldn't bother, for me it made me loose the plot, I don't recall it helped wiht he pain. Not a nice experience, There is anotyher drug you can have that doesn't have the same side affects that pethidine does it's diamorphine.

RnB · 19/08/2009 19:51

I loved it. Could still feel all the pain but I simply didn't care about it

Hangingbellyofbabylon · 19/08/2009 23:58

My midwife said if you're the kind of person who had experienced a 'bad trip' on cannabis then pethadine wouldn't suit. I had a single but very disturbing hash cookie incident at university so wouldn't risk pethadine at all. But others on here have obviously found it very useful. They also freaked me by saying if you do have a bad trip on pethadine there is nothing you can do except ride it out which can take a long time.

FSB · 20/08/2009 22:08

it does seem to be the one drug the people are totally divided about.

i had it with DD because i'd been in latent phase for 2 and a half days and needed to get some sleep. i was really reluctant because i'd heard so many horrible things about the sickness etc, and am paranoid about anything that makes me feel out of control. but desperation took over, so i had a dose (which was given with an anti-sickness component at my hospital) and it was fine. it made me feel a bit spacey, but i was able to sleep for an hour and a half and during that time i dilated from 3cm to 8cm, so it was all go once i woke up.

you can ask them to give you half a dose, so if you do react badly to it, it won't be so full on and will wear off quicker.

good luck, whatever you decide

pickyvic · 20/08/2009 22:42

had it with no 1 and im afraid it made me puke all the way through.

id rather have pain than puke up, so i had my 2nd without it. much better!

AngryWasp · 20/08/2009 22:55

It's a sedation drug used by Midwifes to shut you up so they can cope with their workload. It doesn't nothing for the pain, but impairs your ability to complain about it, or move off the bed.

It also gives the caregivers an excuse to talk about you as if you aren't conscious.

juuule · 21/08/2009 08:23

Angrywasp - that was exactly my experience of pethidine.

AmazingBouncingFerret · 21/08/2009 08:29

thats strange because I was still aware of everything going on around me and what the midwife was doing just didnt give a fuck. I was still able to converse reasonably well.

Original poster

iamamummy · 21/08/2009 12:38

hi ladies

thanks for sharing your experiences good and bad.

I think it is something i definately need to look into, i never considered it before because of all the negativity surrounding the drug. This time around if i get the okay for a homebirth and they use the drug in my area it is something i would just like to have there for piece of mind and backup but not neccesarily use if that makes sense. Last time around i could not get on with gas and air it made me feel very sick.

Thanks again.

OP posts:

AngryWasp · 21/08/2009 13:57

Pethedine comes with an anti-sickness drug so it might help for that reason, - but given that it doesn't do anything for the pain and it's not actually supposed to, you have to think about whether the likely effects are ones that will help you.

SOME people can be completely knocked out by it and wake up ready to push, however, I get the impression that if you are in a lot of pain there is no way you can sleep, - so it would imply that pethedine only helps if it doesn't hurt all that much in the first place iyswim.

It's nice to have a back up plan though, - anything at all which can help you labour in a relaxed way is a good thing.

raggedtrouseredphilanthropist · 21/08/2009 14:11

I had a very long labour, and had pethidine about 12 hours in to help me sleep. My midwife said it was important to give the right dose, as I am tiny the standard dose would be too much for me and would make me really sick (this is what I was told), so I had a smaller dose all worked out on my bodyweight.
And it was lovely - fell asleep for a few hours.

StealthPolarBear · 21/08/2009 14:27

I didn't realise pethidine has a reputation for "shutting women up" but MIL told me that when she was in labour the woman baside her was making a lot of noise so they raced in and gave MIL a dose of pethidine - they had the wrong woman! Even if they had the right woman it doesn't sound like she'd have given consent

Does diamorphine also make you sick? I'm due in a few weeks, hoping to avoid both but definitely don't want anything to mkae me sick, especially as I've had a bad reaction to stemetil.

Flip

1 2 3 4