According to a new study, women who have used laughing gas to reduce pain during childbirth seem to be quite satisfied with the results. This process would be safe for children.
Virtual reality helmet, epidural anesthesia, massages, deep breathing… the options to try to relieve the pain of women giving birth are more and more numerous. One of them, the nitrous oxide or laughing gas, seems to work quite well, with no undesirable side effects for the child, according to a study presented at the annual congress ANESTHESIOLOGY which is held from October 19 to 23 in Orlando, Florida (USA).
To reach this conclusion, the researchers reviewed the medical records of 1,958 women who used nitrous oxide during childbirth between March 2016 and March 2018. The scientists collected the demographic data of the patients (28 years old on average) , their satisfaction, conversion rate to other pain management options and Agpar score. The latter, which varies from 0 to 10, is used to assess the condition and overall health of the newborn one minute and five minutes after birth.
They were thus able to observe that the average rate of satisfaction with the use of laughing gas was 7.4 out of 10, which is relatively positive. And while 68.9% of women who used nitrous oxide ultimately chose another pain management technique (92% of them opted for an epidural), this one was found to be safe for babies whose score averaged 8 and 9 at 1 and 5 minutes respectively.
A relatively inexpensive and easy-to-use alternative
“Although nitrous oxide did not prevent women in labor from seeking other pain management options such as an epidural, we received positive feedback from patients who said they liked the laughing gas as an option to manage their pain,” comments Barbara Orlando, MD, study co-author and assistant professor of anesthesiology, perioperative medicine, and pain at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, USA.
Nitrous oxide, commonly used in Europe and Australia, is increasingly popular in the United States. This inhaled anesthetic gas can help reduce anxiety and make patients less aware of pain, but does not eliminate it, the researchers say. Conversely, the widely used epidural anesthesia blocks pain in the lower part of the body, allowing the birthing mother to be alert as she gives birth to her child.
“Nitrous oxide is easy for patients to use, relatively inexpensive and will attract more patients looking for a birthing center or home birthing experience (…) The high satisfaction rate of patients and the safety profile we found should motivate other national institutions to offer nitrous oxide as a pain management option for women in labour,” concludes Barbara Orlando.
Virtual reality tested during childbirth
In the hospital, health professionals are increasingly trying to find alternatives that are easier to put in place than the epidural to manage the pain of women giving birth while allowing them to remain aware of what is happening to them.
At Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, United States, a medical team is working in particular to develop a virtual reality scenario that includes childbirth instead of taking women to a paradise beach where they would be completely disconnected from the experience of maternity.
Thanks to a helmet, patients are taken to a beach until a campfire is gently lit on the ground. At the same time, a pink tree resembling a placenta blossoms. “We wanted images to help a person go into relaxation mode but also to help them stay connected to the experience. We don’t want them to forget that they are about to have a child, they have to bond with them, bond with the baby, imagine what the baby is going through, visualize what the body is in currently doing. It’s not escapism, it’s going a little further in your own experience”, explain the doctors behind the project.
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