just to satisfy my curiosity really

[yojojo]

i was given pethidine as i was pushing my baby out. I always thought that women weren't given anything like that just before the baby was born because of how it could be affected?
He was born with an apgar of 3 and i had been continually monitored during labour,his heart rate was really decreasing at the end.
Just wondered why they would give me pethidine at that late stage (not that i minded at the time!), i was very spaced out after the birth and am not sure what happened with regards to resusitating (sp) him etc and didn't trust myself to hold him once he had been born

All is fine now though and I felt the birth went well even under the circumstances, i've just always wondered if they gave it to me to make sure i wasn't too stressed out after he was born and had to be seen to by the doctor.
thanks

The same happened to me with ds1. They took him out of the room to be a bit resuscitated iykwim,and then brought him back to me,but I was sooo out of it I couldn't hold him.

Not an ideal experience at all.

I think they gave me the pethidine not realising he was on his way out so fast. Did yours shoot out quicker than expected?

Really put me off having pethidine again.

thanks tired lady!

he didn't come out unexpectedly quickly or anything, i remember the midwife injecting it into my thigh which was somewhere up by my head as i was pushing him out! she said that i didn't really need it but she would give it to me just to be nice!
But you're right, definately not an ideal experience, I feel very guilty at not being able to hold him afterwards

You sure it was Pethidine and not syntometrine (the drug they use to help deliver the placenta)?

yep, i remember having that injection in my other leg as it stung!

hated pethadine. with first labour made me puke - being in labour is bad enough without having your head in a bowl and DH holding hair back

second labour had at home with no pain relief. much different experience altogether. would recommend.

I had dia-morphine (similar to pethidine) with both DS and DD. Both times I was sick and fell asleep. With DS I had forceps and a PPH - he was fine

With DD I wish I hadn't had it, but did and then had to talked to seriously to push. She was a little blue on delivery and was taken away gor a quick bit of oxygen but was fine. I was in better shape post delivery too.

I found pethidine really helpful in my first labour but it did seem unnecessary with this latest labour. I was a little confused as to why I was given it when the baby was almost out, and would definately try and do without if there was ever a next time!

If you really want to know, why not try getting hold of your birth notes, or even get an interview with the midwife involved and ask her. Sounds like that is your only way of finding out why you had it for sure.

Have to say, it does sound odd that you were given it, if you didn't ask for it and the midwife said you didn't really need it!

i would definitely look into it , it is not common or i believe good practice to give pethidine at the point of delivery.

i would speak to PALS at the hospital you delivered at and find out about getting a copy of your notes and going through them as it is not really appopriate

When I had DS I asked for meptid but because of change of shifts it took ages to get it. Had the injection then they decided to check how things were going....upon checking my waters broke and DS was born within 20 mins so not sure how much effect I felt from the meptid. DS was pretty sleepy when he came out though.

Thanks everyone, i may request a copy of my notes. I started to feel the need to push when i was in the side room and let the midwife know before we moved over to delivery so there was plenty of warning that he was coming.
i asked for painrelief when i first arrived at the hospital and made it clear that any kind of pain relief would be welcome!I assumed that the midwives would act in my best interests when it came to offering and administering any pain relief.
It hasn't had any negative effects on DS, he fed well after birth, its just I felt annoyed with myself for not being 'with it' enough to hold him properly. he had skin to skin with DP once the midwives handed him back which I suppose is just as good as with me.

I had the same experience as tiredlady did. I was given a second shot of pethidine and when dd was born she was whipped off to be resucitated as she was affected by it.

I think in my case it was just a case of not realising that the birth was going to happen quite as quickly as it did. Maybe this is the same in your case too.

Mind you labour had been about 13 hours so it wasn't that quick!

I did ask for pethidine for my homebirth as I found it worked really well for me and didn't make me feel as sick as the gas and air.
I had it available on a shelf in a handy syringe (I don't think this is allowed anymore!) but I didn't use it. I was tempted to use it when I found it a few weeks later but I was good and I handed it in!

TBH i didn't feel very with it after any of the births even when I hadn't had any pain relief! The first few hours are always a bit of a blur. I think you build yourself up to it being the perfect 'see it in the films' birth but I was just sweaty and knackered afterwards!

Sometimes it is given too near the birth by accident. No idea why it would be given just birth is imminent. Also MW should seek your verbal agreement before giving you any drug.

Sorry to interrupt, but are you always given syntometrine?

diddl:

To deliver the placenta? No, you can refuse it, and deliver the placenta naturally. In some places you may need to make that very clear in your birthplan to make sure they don't just do it as routine.

If you were bleeding loads they would give you a shot of it to try to stop it.

Syntometrine is a mixture of synthetic Oxytocin and Ergometrine. On the yahoo homebirth group someone said that this combination can make you feel nauseous. They could instead just give you the synthetic oxytocin (syntocin?), which should stop the bleeding without making you feel sick.