Last fall, I had the privilege of supporting my friend, Heather, during the birth of her son at Wake Med Raleigh. At one point they suggested she try nitrous oxide to get her through the last part of delivery and today she's sharing that experience with us! I hope you enjoy what she has to say and are able to learn from her experience.
Heather, can you share with us a little bit about the births of your 3 girls and how you planned to do things differently with the birth of your son?
Sure! When having my first two daughters Ella and Lila, I had long labors with epidurals administered with very little to no complications. During my third pregnancy with Annabelle I was having symptoms of pubic symphysis disfunction or PSD. I decided to have the epidural however after delivering her I had trouble walking, and even moving around in the bed. I was devastated. I wasn't sure how long this would last or if I would ever be able to walk or run normally again. After six weeks of physical therapy, I was back to my normal self, and I even started running again.
During the 6 weeks of recovery I began to mull over what things I could have done differently to help my situation. Knowing that I was having hip problems during the pregnancy, I could have better warned my doctors, nurses, and even family members who were activity involved in the delivery (holding my legs back while I was pushing) that my hips needed to stay aligned. Now, with that said, IF you have a "good epidural," as most know, your blocked from pain from your naval down. I had family members and nurses in the heat of delivery pulling my legs and without having any feeling in my legs I have had a theory that my PSD was worsened because of my inability to feel misalignment in my hips while giving birth.
When pregnant with our fourth child, our first son Jedidiah, I decided months in advance to attempt delivery without an epidural. I then sought out one of the best doulas, Kristen Murphy. While explaining my first three deliveries to her, she agreed that it was in my best interest for better recovery, after delivery, to try to labor and deliver without the epidural. Many people still ask me why no epidural? Short answer is I needed to feel my legs, hips, pelvis during delivery to make sure I wasn't misaligned, causing further hip problems later.
At what point during your labor did you decide to give the nitrous oxide a try?
If my memory serves me correctly I was through the "transition phase." I was in my last leg of the labor, dilated to about 8cm and making great pace to my 10 when I decided to take the nitrous oxide.
How quickly did you start to feel the effects?
Immediately. The instructions were given to me, and my team of nurses, by the head nurse on the floor. The nurse showed me the mask and how to put it on. She explained that when I have the mask on I would be breathing in the nitrous oxide. She instructed me to take my mouth out of the mask and breathe in room air if I felt the nitrous was getting too powerful. Basically, warning me that if I stopped feeling anything, then I was getting too much nitrous. So, there I was in tremendous pain and was handed the mask that was supposed to take an edge off my pain. More on that in the next answer.
I’ve heard that nitrous oxide doesn’t take the pain away during labor, but it is able to help distance you from it and offer relief in that way? Did you find this to be true?
No. I remember one of my first trips to the dentist office where I had to have a tooth removed. I remember them telling me to breathe in deep, that I was going to be breathing in laughing gas. Which from what I understand is essentially what nitrous oxide is. So as a young child breathing in the laughing gas I drifted completely out of conscious state and was dreaming about being a professional skate boarder. I don't even skate board, but the point is: I was completely high as a kite on the nitrous. Now, 20 plus years later I am handed the same stuff but some how it's not supposed to have the same effect on me? Well, it did have the same effect. In fact, I was breathing in so much of the nitrous, by the time I would realize it and had taken my face out of the mask I would already be in and out of consiousness from the previous inhales. It's almost like you have to prejudge how much you were going to need for the next 30 seconds of pain, and that was hard to judge. I inhaled way to much.
Towards the end I knew that I was way in over my head with this powerful inhalant. I knew that once my arms went completely numb my head would start floating and then BAM I was not in the room anymore. Then here is the worst part, when you wake back up about a second or two later you remember you are giving birth! Yes there are times I wish I could be transplanted out of child birth, however when it is literally happening it's not good. The phrase out of control, comes to mind. I felt completely drugged and partially unable to stop breathing it in because I was already so accustomed to it.
Would you use it again? Why or why not?
I would not use it again. I love the idea of taking the edge off the pain, that a woman experiences in childbirth, however this is not the way I would ever recommend. I would not recommend this particular route of pain management unless there is a change in how it is given, a much more regulated way.
The golden moment that I had worked so hard for arrived! Finally I delivered my fourth child Jedidiah and I was so "drugged" that I was unable to really appreciate his arrival. It was a terrible thing to be "half way" there when you labored naturally for days and hours and a quick decision to take the nitrous oxide for an hour or so changed the outcome of that golden, priceless, precious first few bonding moments. Jedidiah had no complications due to any of the nitrous oxide I was taking in. Jed and I were bonding without any problems from the nitrous oxide after about 2 hours of it leaving my system. It was a gradual leaving of the system.
After 20 to 30 minutes I was staring to process everything that had happened and by hour 2 I was overjoyed that I made it out alive and was also the first time I let my support team know that I had passed out a few times during delivery. Hope this helps you sweet ladies! Ultimately God protected this delivery and I am a testimony of nitrous oxide gone bad without any major consequences.
Heather Sanchez is an amazing mother of four little ones. She has one of the biggest servants hearts and is such a joy to all who know her. Her husband serves in the army and their family is stationed here at Fort Bragg, Nc.
