Any experiences using remifentanil pain relief in labour ?

[ASAPWW]

My hospital offers a newer sort of pain relief via a drip. It's called Remifentanil and is patient-controlled analgesia. It is supposed to be an alternative to Pethidine or Epidural. It says it acts quickly and wears of rapdily so you only use it when you feel the need. It also says it has 'minimal effects' on the baby. Has anyone used this before?

Bump - one of the midwives might be along soon!

bumping again.

There's some information about it here. It looks interesting to me - if it wears off very quickly each time it might allow more mobility than an epidural, which might help reduce the number of subsequent interventions following an epidural and enforced immobility.

Bump again? My hospital offers this too (unless we're going to same hospital ASAPWW!) and since I'm 29 weeks now and the hospital bag has been packed, I need to start thinking about a birth plan (yes, I know it will go out the window as soon as my waters break lol)

But if anyone has used this before and would like to share their experience I'd be very interested in hearing about it!!

It sounds interesting because of the short half-life. Less chance that it'll still be in your and the baby's blood come the actual birth if you stop the drip beforehand.

But it is an incredibly potent opiate painkiller, so some side effects for you are still quite likely - e.g. dizziness, nausea, itching and shortness of breath.

And if you were using it right up to the birth, the baby would still be born with it in them however, so the usual issues of opiates would apply.

I used this with DD1 2 years ago.

I was induced so had cfm - the combination of that and the remi drip meant I was basically completely immobile. However I was so out of my head on the remi that I didn't want to do anything except lie there.

I felt totally out of control and unable to make any kind of decision. I also vomited at least once. It was kind of like a really bad night out but with contractions for extra fun.

Then it came time to push and they informed me that I couldn't use the remi for that, so I had to do it on gas and air alone.

I ended up having a section.

I'm sure different people respond differently but I will never use it again if I ever manage spontaneous labour.

Hmm - thanks for sharing your experience skidoodly. I'm keen to go with just TENS, gas & air and water for pain relief, with pethidine if needs be. All those things are available in the midwife led home-from-home unit in our hospital which is a lot nicer than the regular maternity ward but if you want remi or an epidural you have to be monitored by doctors in the regular ward.

This alone was kind of putting me off putting remi in my birth plan and I don't like the fact they have to monitor your oxygen levels while you're on it, since I've already had problems with being short of breath throughout. Now I've heard your experience I'm even warier. But I do like the idea of still being able to move around during labour so I think remi would be preferable to an epidural for me so I guess I won't rule it out completely, but maybe consider it as a last resort.

Thanks again!!

I used a tens machine and swear by it with a little bt of gas and air. It really helped me to focus and took the edge of the pain i even got to 8cm very quickly with it. I ordered from a company called www.babytens.net. HTH

Hi i used it with my DD who is now 2, it made the time go quick but i don't remember much of it, i was basically the same as skidoodly my waters had broken 4 days earlier so i had antibiotics on top of cfm and remifentinol, never laughed so hard as when the midwife asked if i could turn over onto my knees, with 3 drips hanging out of me, yeah sure :o.

TBH i felt very out of control which i didn't enjoy, i have never liked being drunk either, and according to DH and BF i was talking some crap too (apparently doors are not very masculine IMO ), it did the job and i wasn't in too much pain but i think i will give it a miss if possible this time.

BTW my daughter was born by Forceps in the end.

lol BF is Best Friend btw not boyfriend that would have been wierd :o