Pethidine is not a pain killer and it causes long-term damage to babies. What's not to like? (Pethidine During Labour)

Member Name: worst_trip

Product:	Pethidine During Labour
Date:	16/09/09 (113 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Works out dirt-cheap per dose for the NHS, who give it to women during labour as a result

Disadvantages: See headline; in addition it removes your capacity for choerent / rational thought

Pethidine's really cheap. It works out at less than a quid a dose, and that's why, despite it's known drawbacks, the NHS currently offer it to women as pain relief during labour.

For many people it's not much use as a source of pain relief, unfortunately, and worse, if used during labour it also has adverse effects on your baby. It rapidly crosses the placenta, so if you are injected with pethidine during labour, your baby will receive a dose of the drug as well. It's a respiratory depressant, so it affects oxygen trasfer to your sprog at the critical point as she's being born, and studies have show depressed / slower rates for the start of breast-feeding in babies after their mothers have been given pethidine. American studies have also shown it has long-term effects probably on the brain chemistry of children whose mothers received the drug during labour; there was a study amongst drug addicts and alcoholics that linked use of pethidine during labour to long-term addicitve behaviour.

Don't believe me? Look up 'pethidine' and 'long term effects' on a Google or Alta Vista search. The data's all there for you to read through.

Unfortunately I was unaware of all this when I had a pethidine injection as pain relief during a botched indution of labour four years ago. Pethidine made absolutely no bloody difference to the pain whatsoever but it did induce in me a state of mind where I didn't care about it any longer. The drug, quite frankly, sent me out of my head and I was unable to make any rational decisions after the point where it was injected till well after the birth. It does affect people in different ways however.

Pethidine is not a 'pain killer', it has both short and long-term adverse effects on babies, and it removes a mother's capability for coherent thought, which last, is I suppose, quite handy for the NHS as it shuts you up, and after injecting you with it they can then treat you like the utter piece of meat that - in my personal experience - they seem to regard you as in any case.

I would strongly advise anyone who's likely to be offered pethidine (ie. any pregnant woman) to make a clear note in her birth plan that she doesn't want this drug used during her labour. It is terrible stuff and should not be used on humans.

As a side note, in a previous career, I regularly used to administer pethidine by injection as an animal tranquilizer. After my own experience with it, I wouldn't even recommend it for use on a dog. And that's karma for you, I suppose.

Summary: Being sent out of your head on pethidine isn't as much fun as it sounds