no antiemetic with pethadine

[Tinkerisdead]

Has anyone else been faced with this? Im planning a homebirth with independant midwife. I asked if she can get pethadine which she can but she is not permitted to administer the antiemetic which usually accompanies it and so its more likely to make me sick.

She reassured me that all her homebirths have never actually wanted it as water and home environment have been enough to cope. However, now im faced with the thought that the painrelief is there, but i could be realy sick.That makes me mentally discount the pethadine as an option and I feel a little bit more scared.

i know this is pregnancy brain ramble but it feels like i have an option of painrelief on standby but am cautious about using it if it makes me ill. Is it worth having if it makes me sick or is my midwife right, its unlikely i'll want it anyway?

are you sensitive to opiates?

you can use gas & air too.

are you planning on using water?

yes, gas and air and water. I dont know why im scared of throwing up really. Im only 14 weeks and maybe the morning sickness memories are so fresh in mind i cant bear the thought of labouring and puking too. i think i had in my mind, tens, gas, water, pethidine...as options to work through and if pethadine is gonna be crap. i dont want to be unable to cope with pain freak out and transfer to hospital.

i did say its my pregnancy brain rambling. i guess being sick is no big deal in the grand scheme of things

being sick is good for labour ! you cannot tense up whilst you are vomiting, so it can help you dilate..

not sure that pethidine and and a waterbirth mix that well... it can make you a bit spaced out

the relief from water is great.. i think you will find the confidence oyu get from being at home, being able to eat & drink if you need, mobilise, vocalise and go with the flow, will be immense .

ahhh lulumama thank you. i wondered how long it would be before i would be calling for you and for your advice :-) you've really reassured me now.

Pethidine is not really that great IMO. It makes you spaced out and, in my case, doesn't really take the pain away. If it is given too late it can cause the baby to be very drowsy and have feeding problems.

It has never made me feel sick though. Bizarrely, ant emetics do

I had pethedine without any nausea and thought it was great but it did make me totally spaced out.
But the baby slept and didn't feed for almost the first three days after birth because of the opiates in her system. If I hadn't been in in Spain, where you stay in hospital for three days and the mws are very supportive and pro-breast-feeding, i would have freaked out and thought she was starving. Not sure how typical this experience is of pethidine though.

But as pp said, you have lots of time so I wouldn't make any defintie decisions yet.

Pethidine is not that wonderful. It just made me sleep through most of the labour and wake up only for the very worst bits. I also threw up and retched continually until it wore off, despite having anti-emetic medication.

Can I just say a word of warning about pethidine?

I had it when I was in labour with DS1 and I thought it was brilliant - it didn't make me feel sick, it made me feel totally spaced out and it was much easier to cope with the contractions.

HOWEVER, I found it very difficult indeed to push DS1 out and he was very very poorly when he was delivered - he was grey, not breathing, scored 1 on his Apgars, his heartbeat was only 40 bpm (should be around 140 bpm in a newborn)...

He was out for about 10 minutes and they had to call the crash team who had to give him no less than three adrenalin shots, the third one directly into his heart, to get him going again.

No-one can be absolutely certain that it was the pethidine, but I was told that it is certainly not unprecedented for babies to have such an extreme reaction to pethidine. Obviously I didn't touch the stuff in either of my subsequent labours.

glad to be of help.

i had a client who is sensitive to opiates, had hte pethidine with the anti emetic and still threw up 4 or 5 times.

have a read of the Janet Balaskas new waterbirth book, it is really inspiring and full of fab info about waterbirth, including what happens if the water is not working that well for you etc...

Another one here who is not a fan of pethidine either. I had it with DD1 (administered at home by MW so no anti-emetic) and all it did was space me out completely. I still felt all the pain just couldn't explain how much, where properly! I wasn;t sick until DD1 was born many, many hours later .

I avoided it like the plague with DD2 and was far, far better off despite the labout being almost identical to DD1s. Will avoid it with DS1 when he eventually decides to come out.

Go for the home birth with water and see how things go. I had to transfer to hospital both times with DDs - was no big deal, you just take it as it comes at the time. In the end I had two wonderful babies (and lots of pain relief ).

Hi

I had to get out of the bath when i had pethadine, as they were worried i'd collapse, and was dangerous to be in water. i made it over the bed and couldn't really lift my head, I wasn't sick, it did relax me. but as a pain relief no way, the pain felt the same. Not worth having IMO

epidurals however......

Pethidine did nothing for the me apart from give me an extremely painful thigh for several days after the birth - it did nothing for the actual pain of childbirth! I was sick a few times before having it and I think I was given a jab to stop that before moving up to the labour ward.

I was planning a HB and one thing I really wanted was to get antiemetic drugs because I was very sick with DD. Apparently you need to speak to your doctor to get him/her to prescribe them for you. Hope this helps

needahand, great tip about doctor thank you. just came back from shopping and really inspired by responses thank you to all. Lulumama i'm gonna search for that book.