Gas n Air

[Parentingdilemmas]

Hi all

I’m due pretty soon and lots of anxieties are kicking in regarding labour and the pain of it all.

I’ve never managed to get to the hospital before active labour in previous pregnancies, by the time I’ve arrived at the hospital I’ve been around 7cm dilated and then straight to delivery room and started pushing not long after.

I’ve always been given gas n air as soon as I’ve reached the hospital and it’s helped a lot.

My question is, for those who managed to get to the hospital earlier and before active labour and before excruciatingly painful and heavy close together contractions… were you offered gas n air right away? Did that make the active labour side of things easier to bear? Did it help you feel less of the pain with those closer contractions?

Thanks

I got to the hospital at 4cm and was given gas and air immediately. It helped take the edge off the pain at first but It was 12 hours before my baby was born and after a few hours of the gas and air I had to take a break from it as it was making me sick (not 100% sure it was the gas and air making me sick but i felt like it was)

@beepingel - ahh okay so you’re offered it right away, that’s good to know. It probably was what was making you sick as I felt the same way. Too much of it can make you a bit groggy and high too x

Also the other question I have is do you go to a shared ward until you’re a certain amount dilated before moving to delivery room?

I’ve always went straight to delivery so just trying to be prepared as want to get to hospital in good time this time around x

With my last pregnancy (last year) I got to hospital at 3cm dilated and the midwife said to hold off the gas and air until I got to 4cm, only took an hour or so. In the meantime I had a couple of co-codamol and that sufficed.

At my local hospital you don't head up to delivery suite until you are 4cm dilated. However, there is a separate midwifery led unit on site and there you would stay in the one room throughout. I wasn't allowed to use the MLU with my last pregnancy as it was a VBAC, but other hospitals may differ.

I went in before I was in active labour with both births (my body needs an induction appointment to decide to kick things off so both times I arrived for inductions at 3cm and early natural labour)

They discussed sending me home for a bit but I live quite far away from the hosp so I was put on a shared ward and given cocodamol. I just used a tens machine and breathed through it (trying not to wake the other ladies who had been in for days being induced)

I was only offered gas and air when I was in active labour and should have been moved to delivery (there wasn’t a bed for me so I had to stay on the ward in active labour with my gas and air for a bit - I was definitely disturbing the others by this point)

I wouldn’t recommend getting there too early to be honest, I would have preferred to stay home a bit longer. I’m not sure what the covid policy is now but I was without my husband on the ward.

Thanks for the replies ladies.

I’ve never managed to get to the hospital during the early stages of labour because with Baby 1 I assumed I had loads of time as I was always told a first time labour is long and I should stay home as much as I can (that proved untrue). Baby 2 it all happened so fast that I had the baby 45 mins after arriving in hospital.

I just want to be able to access gas n air earlier on as the contractions can be so very painful and hard to bear without it. I’m hoping to get to hospital as soon as I feel the slightest niggle of a contraction x

I wasn't given gas and air until stage two unfortunately! Just a few weeks ago. I didn't go to delivery until I was ready to push as they were short staffed and not listening to me. Gas and air was only available in delivery suites not the sntenal ward.

@Flittingaboutagain oh gosh that’s what I’m worried about. Where in the UK did you give birth if you don’t mind me asking? This is my first Covid pregnancy experience so I’m already afraid of the unknown things like short staffed wards, covid visiting rules for partners etc x

I was induced & got gas & air as soon as I was taken up to have my waters broken, my contractions started as soon as they broke my waters, I had been given the gel 24 hours before, they were in a hurry to get me delivered as I had pre eclampsia, It was a first baby & I was less than 2cm 24 hours after having the gel, they broke my waters at 7.00pm & I had an epidural at 11.30pm, I was still less than 3cm but they said it would help my blood pressure.

@Parentingdilemmas

Also the other question I have is do you go to a shared ward until you’re a certain amount dilated before moving to delivery room?

I’ve always went straight to delivery so just trying to be prepared as want to get to hospital in good time this time around x

At the hospital near me, if you're less than 4 cm then you'll be sent home for a while once you're 4cm or more you'll be admitted to the delivery ward and have your own room.

There is a shared ward for inductions, and you stay there until you're about 4cm then move to delivery.

I was on a shared ward until delivery because they didn't believe that I was as far into labour as I was. I'm sure if there had been more staff and someone could have observed a contraction from start to end that would have been different. They also tried to send my partner home when I was three hours from baby arriving telling me that visiting hours had ended, even though I was well into my labour. All I can say is make sure you're birth partner is very clued up on what you want and is assertive so you don't get pushed around!

I have really long first stages. So both times I've been to hospital at about 1cm dilated and didn't have the option of gas and air.

With the first birth I was really really struggling at home (planned home birth) and was asking for gas and air bur the first midwife basically laughed at me and said if you want that now you'll be on an epidural before you know it (in hindsight I'm really annoyed at how insensitive this was!) and the second one said not yet, I normally get my ladies to 8/9cm before they start the gas and air, but then she offered me some other pain management (basically positioning, movement and breathing and visualisation) and this did actually help. She then recommended that I transfer into hospital to get pethidine to allow me to sleep and rest a bit. Actually just the idea that I could get some relief seemed to help and allow things to progress - so by the time I arrived there, I was more like 3/4cm dilated and they allowed me into a room. I continued with this brilliant midwife's positioning, movement, breathing techniques for 2 more hours and then got into the birth pool which helped enormously and about 2/3 hours later I asked for and got gas and air - I was probably about 7cm at this point.

Second baby I had abroad and they didn't do gas and air but I was again begging for an epidural at 1cm dilated because it was so painful/hard to manage! Once they got the epidural sited again I calmed down and that seemed to allow things to progress as I shot straight to 6cm and then 10cm in about an hour each. However the epidural didn't work so I did that labour entirely without pain relief which was a bit rough.

If you're in very early stages but finding things difficult to manage then they usually offer opiates. I didn't really understand this - I always thought it was a scale like gas and air > opiates > epidural. But actually it's best to avoid the gas until later if possible because it's short-acting, whereas pethidine stays in your system a while so it's best to have that earlier on so that it has a chance to exit your system before the baby is born.

In the UK hospital policy is generally that you need to be 4cm before you're admitted and allowed into a private room, they will typically send you home if you come before this point. They kept me in with my second baby because my waters had already broken and I needed antibiotics as I'd had a positive GBS test. Apparently they won't give any pain relief earlier unless you're in a real state.

I don't know if my experience is helpful to you because I seem to get excruciatingly heavy and close together contractions from 1cm dilated! I start out with mild manageable ones and then they get worse and worse but I don't actually dilate until something happens to make it click somehow and then it all gets going.

Early stages sorry. Not first stages. Although the first stage is long it's the 1-4cm bit that I'm talking about which takes forever - 24 hours with first baby and 13 hours with second.

Hoping it halves again and is only 6-8 hours this time!

Thank you so much everyone for the detailed replies, I really needed these. I had no idea about the 4cm general rule so very informative. I hope my 3rd labour is as quick as my previous 2 but you really can’t predict can you, anything can happen. Scary shit x

Just in case you don't know you can decline internal examinations and the have to use other skills like observation and ambulatory monitoring to gatekeep.

@5475878237NC ahh I didn’t know that x