Mothering › Mothering Discussion Forums › Pregnancy and Birth › Birth and Beyond › Homebirth › Gas at homebirths in the US....
New Posts  All Forums:
 

Gas at homebirths in the US.... - Page 3

post #41 of 69
1/7/08 at 8:57pm
I love Entonox when I'm at the dentist.

I have researched it and I personally think it is safe. It has a half-life of 30 seconds in the body. If a baby is more oxygen-deprived with a mom using Entonox compared to the MILLIONS of babies who are oxygen-deprived because they're subjected to Pitocin-augmented labors, I'd be surprised.

I think it should be an option for women laboring in the USA. Follow the money....I think it's not avail. here because it's cheap and effective. Epidurals are much more lucrative!

What about making friends with a dentist? And inviting him/her to your homebirth? Those are the nitrus-administering pros in the USA. (Seriously. Whippits aren't going to satisfy.)

You may also like:

Sitting or Squatting: What's Really Best in the Bathroom?
There Is Not Always a "Fix" For the Difficult Child
10 Things You Don't Need For a New Baby
post #42 of 69
1/7/08 at 9:00pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by tinyshoes View Post

I think it should be an option for women laboring in the USA. Follow the money....I think it's not avail. here because it's cheap and effective. Epidurals are much more lucrative!
I agree and additionally, not only for the pharmaceuticals and anastheologists but if gas was available for moms at home, then I bet more moms would opt for homelabor -- thus OBs and hospitals would lose out. I am sure there are so many obstacles to it happening here in the US. But it would just take one birth friendly state and the others would fall.......eventually......

Quote:
Originally Posted by tinyshoes View Post
What about making friends with a dentist? And inviting him/her to your homebirth? Those are the nitrus-administering pros in the USA. (Seriously. Whippits aren't going to satisfy.)
My dentist does really like us..... Oh, but he doesn't use laughing gas.....
post #43 of 69
1/7/08 at 9:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by 3cuties View Post
My dentist does really like us..... Oh, but he doesn't use laughing gas.....
.....but maybe his fellow dentist friend does use gas.
post #44 of 69
1/7/08 at 10:33pm
Have you noticed the google adds popping up on this thread? Funny. I'm not clicking on any. yet.

Quote:
Originally Posted by wednesday View Post
When I've asked around about usage of NO, on websites and in person, the response has been overwhelmingly critical in the tone of, more or less, "You should want a natural birth, and if you don't, maybe you should just go to the hospital and get the epidural." I don't doubt that there are some folks here and there using it, but it's hard to come by any information about it.
I see. So there is hope. Me & 3cuties are gonna start a revolution.:

It's really unfortunate that people see things so black and white. The word "Natural" itself is grey.

Helen & Orangefoot: Thanks for the info and experience!

Tinyshoes: good point about the money.

Too bad I promised myself I'd go to a LLL meeting tomorrow morning or I'd have plenty of time to dig deep on this... Baby steps.

I'll be back.
post #45 of 69
1/9/08 at 2:08pm
I talked to the supplier I mentioned earlier and they can't supply the 50/50 mix. So they gave me Air Gas: 800-637-9353. Airgas had numbers for local distribution areas, I called mine and am waiting for a call back.

Turns out Walgreens Home Health has some kind of nationwide service where they rent Pulse Oximeters for $425 a month. Local medical supply says they're $500 to buy.

So I think I'm going to try to talk someone local and see if they can cut me a deal on renting, even though its not something they normally do.
post #46 of 69
1/9/08 at 2:47pm
Please keep us informed. I would *love* to have this option for my next homebirth!
post #47 of 69
1/9/08 at 10:06pm
Our ambulance-grade pulse oximeters cost $400 to $500, but I've seen cheaper like here:
http://www.devonsuperstore.com/pulse...FShsGgodSzLZYA

You'd have to investigate if they'd be as good as a more expensive one but there are options. This is an extremely interesting topic, thanks for posting it!
post #48 of 69
1/10/08 at 1:59pm
Thread Starter 
Thank you for posting that!
post #49 of 69
1/10/08 at 2:36pm
If midwives can use gas, purely for pain relief at Home Births, why can't they use vacuum extractors which might save lives? Why can't they use a few drops of California poppy tincture, which would allow women to follow their natural health belief system? (My husband and I really believe that God invented all the medicines we could ever need and that substances should be consumed whole and simply (rather than in combination) and not isolated or synthetic whenever possible).

I just don't understand how gas could be that useful, really. It doesn't put the mama to sleep (so she could emerge from prodromal labor) and it doesn't help a stuck baby emerge. I just think it represents sort of a misunderstanding of the needs of the laboring woman. Women don't really need momentary pain relief in labor, IMO. The best thing the epidural does is allow a mother to sleep through her contractions and emerge with a clear head. Morphine allows a woman to sleep, but she doesn't get the clear head, she also doesn't risk a spinal headache or a drop in BP . . . Gas seems like just a somewhat risky sideshow in the labor pain relief story, IMO.
post #50 of 69
1/10/08 at 8:22pm
Thread Starter 
But that is exactly the point. I don't want to go to sleep or be paralyzed or be out of it, I want assistance through a difficult stage that lasts a short period of time. If you read about women using it in other countries -- that is exactly the entire point -- not to go to sleep and not to be paralyzed.

It might be your opinion that women don't need momentary pain relief, but in the end that is limited by your experience. In mine and others I have talked that is what women would prefer -- the choice of that rather than the taking on the other risks and the length of time the other pain meds work.

Finally, it might be your opinion that it isn't worth the risks, but that is not what the studies bear out. The studies actually show that it isn't risky at all and in other countries it is common place -- it isn't even debatable. Which by the way, this isn't a debate thread.
post #51 of 69
1/10/08 at 8:26pm
Thread Starter 
As for the Rooks article, I copied and pasted the full article with the citation in this post:

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...8&postcount=15
post #52 of 69
1/10/08 at 9:09pm
Sure, but there are plenty of other non-risky medical interventions that are disallowed at Homebirths . . . I just feel like introducing another risk factor into the debate complicates the issue, when at least where I'm at, you aren't allowed to have an attendant at all (CPMs are illegal), let alone Nitrous . . . . Plus it is hardly very natural . . . I really see it as something of a recreational drug. And I agree with PPs that it is available at your local head shop if someone really feels committed to needing it . . . Plus the title of this thread was Gas at Homebirths in the US . . . like it was a discussion thread.
post #53 of 69
1/10/08 at 9:17pm
I wish it was available in the US. I think many more women would be comfortable having out of hospital births if they had this option.
post #54 of 69
1/11/08 at 12:40am
Together, we can make it happen a lot faster than alone. Ask your midwives for it. I have learned nothing that says it is "illegal" in any way. Sure, you need some sort of license/authority to purchase it. But many of our midwives have it. Maybe I'm lucky that I have a CNM who does home births. But we've got to start somewhere. Even if it is illegal, people get new laws passed every day (or old ones thrown out). We deserve this option.
post #55 of 69
1/11/08 at 1:34am
Quote:
Women don't really need momentary pain relief in labor, IMO.
Whewwww, speak for yourself!!!
post #56 of 69
1/11/08 at 12:11pm
I think the chief impediment to having a homebirth for the women I know is concerns (justified or not) of safety . . . Not lack of access to Whip-its. There is no way on Earth that this will ever be okayed for Homebirths before it is okayed in the hospital, IMO.
post #57 of 69
1/11/08 at 12:13pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by dinahx View Post
I think the chief impediment to having a homebirth for the women I know is concerns (justified or not) of safety . . . Not lack of access to Whip-its. There is no way on Earth that this will ever be okayed for Homebirths before it is okayed in the hospital, IMO.
If you really want to debate this, go ahead and start your own thread. I started this thread to talk about how some women (and there appears to be alot) to find out how to get access to it NOW. I really do not want to be reading your criticisms of how I want to homebirth. Thank you!
post #58 of 69
1/11/08 at 1:07pm
Sorry- we're talking about nitrous oxide and oxygen. N2O+O. Yeah, there's more natural things (like pure oxygen) but I wouldn't have said that fentanyl is one of them.
There is no reason why gas and air can't be used at a hospital birth in the US- just like cervidil (if I've got my drug right) is used as an off-label tocolytic agent to stimulate strong uterine contractions, gas and air could easily be used by an OB who wanted to as an off-label pain relieving agent.
post #59 of 69
1/12/08 at 4:57pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by elizaMM View Post
I talked to the supplier I mentioned earlier and they can't supply the 50/50 mix. So they gave me Air Gas: 800-637-9353. Airgas had numbers for local distribution areas, I called mine and am waiting for a call back.

Turns out Walgreens Home Health has some kind of nationwide service where they rent Pulse Oximeters for $425 a month. Local medical supply says they're $500 to buy.

So I think I'm going to try to talk someone local and see if they can cut me a deal on renting, even though its not something they normally do.
So the supplier will supply you (or a CNM?) the Nitros and the oxygen but then you need some sort of equipment to modulate it to insure that it is a 50/50 mix? And your CNM is okay with using it?
post #60 of 69
1/15/08 at 12:02am
Nobody's been clear about what kind of credentials one needs to have to get it, I don't think I've reached anyone who knows. Hopefully I'll connect with someone tomorrow. If necessary, I'll argue that a CNM, being equivalent to an FNP, should be sufficiently qualified. I think we'll need to get it pre-mixed.

The pulse-oximeter is to monitor the O2 saturation in my bloodstream. Have you seen those little things that grab your finger like a clothespin, only loosely? They display a number, usually in the upper 90s for normal, that shows how much oxygen is in your bloodstream. It seems to be standard to use one of these with Nitrous. But I haven't looked into it that thoroughly, so maybe its okay to go without.

My midwives are fine with using it (at least they've said they are) and even fine with using it w/o a pulse oximeter. Its acquiring it that is the current challenge. And they are a little worried about transporting it and the potential headache of keeping track of how much gets used, if the laws require that.

I think head-midwife is ambivalent: realizes it could be fantastic, but isn't excited about the hassle.
New Posts  All Forums:
 
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Homebirth

You may also like:

Sitting or Squatting: What's Really Best in the Bathroom?
There Is Not Always a "Fix" For the Difficult Child
10 Things You Don't Need For a New Baby
Mothering › Mothering Discussion Forums › Pregnancy and Birth › Birth and Beyond › Homebirth › Gas at homebirths in the US....