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Sterile Water Injections

sl_gordonsl_gordon
in Natural Birth
Yesterday at my appointment, my midwife started going over some med-free pain management options and one of the things she mentioned was sterile water injections.  Basically, sterile water is injected at 4 locations around the spine in your lower back, and it is supposed to alleviate the pain of back labour for 60 to 90 minutes and can be repeated as necessary.  I had never heard of this, and I was wondering if anyone here had any experiences with it.  My midwife did mention that the injection sites can be quite painful for a couple minutes afterwards and that some of her patients absolutely love it while others thought the process was so painful they would rather experience the back labour.
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Re: Sterile Water Injections

  • papagenapapagena member
    I've read about them in a labor story or two.  The one I remember said it did take the edge off. 
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  • kesryakesrya member

    I've read about these but honestly, as a licensed acupuncturist, I'm not sure how they are supposed to work other than they are stimulating known acupuncture points that also relieve back pain.  But in this case, the "water injection" is not necessary -- you can just use a filiform needle (ie. solid) rather than a hypodermic needle and water.  Solid needles are so much smaller in size than hypodermic needles that you barely feel them.

    Another common procedure to alleviate back pain that is non-invasive and less painful than injecting water is cupping -- also a chinese medicine techinque, but anyone who has a set of cups should be able to use them.  I intend to teach my husband how to cup my sacrum in the case that I go into labor at night and my acupuncture colleague doesn't want to come over and do it.

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  • Germanwife2bGermanwife2b member
    I had them in my homebirth because I had horrific back labor.  It DID take care of the back labor for about 1 1/2 hours (according to my birth assistant) but the application of the saline papules was excruciating.  I only heard them say "two" injections and not "two on each side" and the last two injections really caught me off-guard.  My husband said that the scream I let out while receiving the papules was as if someone had just chopped my arms off.  They were really, really bad.  So, I guess I fall in the camp of "been there, tried that, don't need to do that again."  But they did help with the back labor temporarily and for that I was grateful.  Maybe I would have reacted differently if I had known that they were painful to receive beforehand...
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  • shortstuff15shortstuff15 member

    imageGermanwife2b:
    I had them in my homebirth because I had horrific back labor.  It DID take care of the back labor for about 1 1/2 hours (according to my birth assistant) but the application of the saline papules was excruciating.  I only heard them say "two" injections and not "two on each side" and the last two injections really caught me off-guard.  My husband said that the scream I let out while receiving the papules was as if someone had just chopped my arms off.  They were really, really bad.  So, I guess I fall in the camp of "been there, tried that, don't need to do that again."  But they did help with the back labor temporarily and for that I was grateful.  Maybe I would have reacted differently if I had known that they were painful to receive beforehand...

    I have also been there and done that.  Will never do it again.  I think I nearly broke my husbands hands when I got the injections.  They did work like magic right away, but for the pain that it took to get them, wasn't worth the 2 hours of relief.

    Daughter #1 - February 12, 2010 

    natural m/c March 11, 2011 at 8 1/2 weeks 

    Daughter #2 - January 11, 2012 

    Ectopic pregnancy discovered November 6, 2012 at 6 weeks

    Daughter #3 - January 19, 2014

    Started our exploration into the world of international adoption June 2012.  We have no idea what this is going to look like but we are excited to find out!

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