Labor Pain Relief: Nitrous Oxide

riveridgional · April 2016

So, I found out last night at my 4 part pregnancy / childbirth class that my hospital is the only in my state to offer nitrous oxide as a pain relief option. Apparently it's a relatively new thing. The instructor phrased it as not really having any cons to it. Anyone else heard about this? Any experience with this or thoughts?

ETA : No cons except that it doesn't eliminate the pain like an epidural. It lowers your anxiety level, which helps you to relax and you don't care about the pain as much.

Whitmore1027 · April 2016

I hadn't heard about it until someone mentioned it last night at my pregnant water aerobics class. They said it's a GREAT option, and basically you take it when you have a contraction, and once you take it off, there are no side effects. It's just like the dentist office. Sounds like a good option!

Bookhousegirl · April 2016

I know someone who used it recently and said it was helpful, but not even close to an epidural. I will say, the anxiety of the upcoming contraction is totally real and how you react to it makes a huge difference in pain levels! I could feel a significant difference in pain levels between when I tensed up vs being relaxed, so in that way I can see why it would be a great alternative. I ended up getting an epidural, but I think it's a good option if you are trying to avoid one.

LilLambie · April 2016

I had it last time. In my opinion it was terrible because it made me feel drunk which I hated.

The medication lasts about 10 seconds for each breath so they recomended only using it when you feel a contraction starting and then breathing through it until it ends. It takes the edge of the pain but doesn't stop it all together. If you don't mind the whole drunk feeling, you might find it helpful.

It's really common in Australia where I am, so you might be able to find some information on google that is Australian based.

riveridgional · April 2016

@LilLambie thanks for the input. it's great to hear from someone with actual experience with it. I've never used it before, so I have no clue about it!

LilLambie · April 2016

@riveridgional take my 'review' with a grain of salt. I truly hate feeling drunk. But as a pp said, it wears off quickly so you don't feel the effects between contractions. This meant that as soon as I started hating on it, I was able to stop and stopped feeling drunk within about 1 minute. I think it also made me feel nauseous but that might have been the whole in pain thing- I can't exactly remember.

Some positives are that you can still walk around and do all the things that you can't do with an epidural. I used it whilst bouncing on a yoga ball next to the bed. You are a bit restricted (at least in Australia) because the gas comes out of a wall fitting and you have a probably 2 m long tube to breath through so you can't be more then 2 m's away from the fitting. I'm not sure if it's different in other countries- it might be more portable- but wherever I have seen it in Australia it's a wall fitting. I also got given a control for concentration of the gas. They set it pretty low to begin with (I think it was 50% oxygen, 50% nitrous) and instructed me how to increase the dose if I wanted more pain relief. I never increased it because of the whole drunk feeling, but I imagine if I had put it up to full it might have taken more then just the edge off of the pain.

If your hospital is offering it, I would recommend giving it a go before you get an epidural. It doesn't hurt to try it and if you find you don't like it or it's not giving you enough pain relief you can always get an epidural.

ramoseecology · April 2016

I've heard about it as "gas and air" when I watched a British tv show a few years ago on labor/birth since it's common over there. I think the show was One Born Every Minute. I looked it up at the time since I had no idea what was going on with these women breathing it in for pain relief.

Here's a link to the show: https://www.mylifetime.com/shows/one-born-every-minute

And it looks like a video from youtube from the show of someone using it: