Anyone had remifentanyl pump for labour pain releif?

[UrsulaSings]

I have been told I cannot have an epidural due to previous spinal surgery, and that this might be an alternative. I was just wondering if anyone had any experience of this during labour? Thank you.

No experience here, sorry, but following with interest as I am unable to have an epidural too.

Yes, I had it three weeks ago.
My epidural totally failed, so it was a last minute option.
It doesn't provide total pain relief but it is pretty good. You can only press the button at times intervals, so you have to time it correctly when a contraction is coming. I felt pretty spaced out.
I would go for it, as it's the next best option after epidural. Also, the effects wear off quickly.

Thanks @Liverbird77 for sharing your experience. Does the drug have any effect on the baby e.g. like pethidine can do?

Not as far as I know.

Remifentanil is a powerful opioid painkiller with an ultra short half life - it wears off within minutes, which is why it has to be given by continuous IV infusion. It is broken down by esterase enzymes in your blood plasma.
Because of the short half life, it does not persist in the baby after delivery, unlike older longer lasting drugs such as pethidine or diamorphine.
In controlled trials, it was inferior to epidural in pain relief, but it’s certainly the next most effective, if an epidural is not available.
It can cause respiratory depression at higher doses and you may have your O2 saturation monitored or be given oxygen while receiving it.
As with all opioids, there is a risk of nausea or vomiting, and you may feel a bit “spaced out”. But if you want decent pain relief, and an epidural is not possible for any reason, remi is the “next best thing”.

Thank you @Liverbird77 for your experience and @Babdoc for your very knowledgeable information!

Do you know if they take it off you when you go into the 'pushing' stage? Or are you allowed to continue it into this stage? My friend has told me that they took the gas and air off her when she went into the pushing stage, which sounds fairly common at my hospital. I'm wondering whether they take this off you as well?

@UrsulaSings I had it with my baby and it was welcome relief but still needed to use the gas and air while using it. I was also so spaced out that I kept forgetting to press the button at times. I didn't even know how to use it I was so confused.
They also took it off me when it came to pushing.
It made the pain bearable but that was with the gas as well. I was also very sick during the pushing stage and was being sick while pushing probably due to a mixture of everything!
I was using it for a few hours though so probably if you're using it for a shorter time you might not get as sick with it

I had it in my last labour and didn't get on with it at all well. It affected my breathing really badly and made me feel very powerless and spaced out - not in a nice way. Then really sick afterwards for a few hours, so much so that I needed an anti-emetic. DS was very sleepy too for the first day and struggled to feed. I know all babies are individual and I was told that it wouldn't cross over to him but we were both utterly zonked from it for the whole day. I don't think the pain relief was worth the horrible side effects. Good luck with it all though, my experience is just anecdotal!

I had it during my labour, my labour wasn't the greatest and I didn't cope with gas and air well, it made me throw up a lot so by the time they introduced this I was already in a bad way.

It knocked me out every time I used it - so it was great in terms of managing the pain because I couldn't feel anything, but to be honest I couldn't hold myself together enough during to know if I needed to push or just know in general what was going on.