Question; sterile water injection during labor

[muziekboxke]

Hi mum’s, everybody,

We are secondyearstudents midwifery in Brussel (Belgium). We are making a scription about sterile water infiltration, also called intracutaneous sterile water injections, it decreases low back pain during labor.
We are looking for people who have experience with that and want to share us there story.
That would help us a lot!

Kind regards!

Jolien, Wendy, Fleur, Lieselot

[nashvillemidwife]

I use them on my clients; they are marvelous. They sting like hell for about a minute then give hours of relief from back labor pain. I know this may sound barbaric, but I've found it's best to do them during a contraction if possible; you have to deal with both pains at once, but you're not wasting any of between-contraction recovery time on the injections. It's best to have two people doing the injection simultaneously on each side to get it over with quicker. If you can't get all 4 in during one contraction you can do 2 during one contraction, give her a break, and do the other two during the next. Not to be obvious, but be sure you know how to do them. You've got to do 4 injections in specific places; my own midwife thought you did 3 and it didn't work well for me. Also remember that you should never re-inject someone with the same needle; piercing the skin dulls the needle a little each time and removes any lubrication that may have come on the needle, making each subsequent stick a little more painful (this goes for blood draws too). Use 4 different tuberculin or insulin (1 cc) needles to draw up the water (0.1 cc each) and have them all ready so you can inject, discard, and poke again with the other syringe.

[terrabella]

I have never heard of this!

I have to say, it gives me chills. But then, I don't like needles.

Huh, how fascinating.

[Tellera]

I had these.

I can say that they took my mind off of the horrendous back labor because they were a different kind of horrendous back pain. I was entirely unprepared for how much they hurt. I cried getting the second set. I don't know if they themselves helped or the just the shock of the pain took my mind off of the contractions.

However, unlike a pp, they did not give me hours of pain relief - it was only lessened back pain for about 3 contractions.

I remember saying I won't do that again. But, I am not sure, I guess I'll see just how much pain I'm in before I say never.

[bethanyclaire]

I had them also. I had back labor with my DD and the MW suggested that they might help. She had used them numerous times with good results. I will say that they made no difference for me. It would have been nice if they had at least helped take the edge off but I felt no difference with them than I had without them. I have a high pain tolerance, however. I really didn't think they were very painful going in but I had horrid back labor to compare them to. I wouldn't have them again, though.

[nashvillemidwife]

I'm not saying this is the case, but a lot of midwives don't know how to do them right.

[jecombs]

I had them, and while they hurt like hell going in, they provided almost immediate relief from the back labor. I was in transition and had been having back labor for about 4 hrs. The sterile water injections made transition/labor feel totally doable and allowed me to rest between contractions better. The effect last 45 min to an hour. Then I was ready to push!

OPs, you can PM me if you need more info.

[GoBecGo]

My good friend had them during a contraction, and went on to deliver an 11lb boy without any other pain relief, and said that the injections were the most painful thing she'd ever had done, including births, broken bones etc. She says they did make the next hour or so of labour seem less bad than immediately before the injections, but she wouldn't have them again.

[Mama of 4 for God]

Worked for me . . .

I used sterile H2O injection with my first delivery (currently awaiting #4). I had back labor and had put the injections as an option on my birth plan. I had read about them and thought to try them if needed when in labor with back pain. I delivered at a hospital that had midwives on staff and choose a midwife for my delivery when I got to the hospital. I arrived at shift change and the midwife leaving was familiar with the injections while the one coming on was not. She stayed long enough to administer the injections and show next midwife how to do them. They had me count backwards from 60 to 1. It was the most painful thing that I have ever been through, but it only lasted for about 30 seconds total. All back labor stopped immediately and I was pushing and delivering soon after so I never knew how long the effects could have lasted for me.
With subsequent deliveries I had used an out of hospital midwife and birthed at home. She doesn't use sterile H2O in her practice. I may consider it again but would say that it would have to be very bad back labor and right now with current midwife it isn't an option.

I did hemorrhage bad enough to require a pitocin drip, injection and suppository after first delivery. I wonder if I would have needed all that if nerves had been left alone without sterile H2O injections . . . Haven't hemorrhaged with any other deliveries so far.

[katelove]

A good friend of mine had them recently during her first labour and though it was great. It is definitely something I would try if I was getting a lot of back pain.

Thanks for reminding me to ask the midwives at the hospital if they can all administer them.

[limette]

Omg sterile water injections are the most painful thing I've ever experienced in my life. Will never, ever, ever in a million years submit myself to that kind of pain again.

They injected them in 4 (or maybe it was 5) points and I screamed like I've never screamed (or heard anybody scream) in my life. Dh had to take dd1 outside and he said he could still hear me loud and clear. I had back labor and those injections did nothing for it. I want to cry just thinking about it. They were absolute torture for nothing.

The entire labor and 2 hours of pushing which were all insanely painful were a stubbed toe in comparison to those injections.

Then again my midwife was absolutely horrible to me during the labor so she might have been torturing me on purpose for attempting an hbac.

[MelW]

I am a former labour nurse, and I used to offer them to my clients with back pain. I would guess that about 80% of women had good pain relief with them (many described only feeling contractions in the front, not in the back afterwards), usually for 1-2 hours. I have repeated them again, too. Most women said that they were painful going in- when possible I would have a helper and both inject at once so we could get them all done during one contraction. I also used a tuberculin syringe, and had everything drawn up and ready before using it.

I only once had a woman have excessive pain when putting them in (she screamed so that everyone down the hallway could hear). She also had such good pain relief from them that she asked me to repeat them a couple of hours later. Almost everyone else complained that they hurt, but generally not sooo much worse than the labour they were already experiencing.

I had some put in to try when I wasn't in labour (I wanted to see how badly they stung). It stung a lot for the first few minutes, but not so I screamed or moaned and certainly not the worst pain of my life.

[Bluegoat]

Why is it they hurt so much? I have seen directions on how they are given, but I have no idea why they are so painful.

[nashvillemidwife]

They're painful because your skin wasn't meant to be infiltrated with sterile water. Have you ever gotten tap water in your eye? There's a reason we use saline on our contact lenses, not plain water.

When the anesthesiologist went to put in my epidural he said "this is going to sting a little". I said it was probably going to be nothing compared to the sterile water injections I'd had a few hours ago. He said "wow, you're a braver man than I am".

[muziekboxke]

Thanks for the reactions! It helps us a lot!
In a few weeks we have to give a paper to our teachers.

Now, we know more about this subject!
Thanks to all!