Local Voices
NITROUS OXIDE ANALGESIA: NEW OPTION FOR PAIN MANAGEMENT OFFERED AT BREATH OF LIFE BIRTH CENTER
Breath of Life Women’s Health & Birth Center is the first in the Tampa Bay area to begin offering nitrous oxide/oxygen analgesia for laboring women with their Nitronox® System. This system delivers a fixed mixture of 50% oxygen and 50% nitrous oxide (better known as “laughing gas”) that is safe, effective, simple, and popular with many laboring women.
“It is a primary aim of Breath of Life to allow clients free choice and autonomy in selecting the best form of labor pain management for each particular situation,” says Director Chris Hilderbrandt, CNM. “In the interest of allowing clients this process of choice, we now offer nitrous oxide analgesia which has been, and is currently, used extensively world-wide as a primary form of analgesia for labor and birth.”
Nitrous oxide (better known as “laughing gas”):
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- provides enough labor pain relief for many women
- may enable women to avoid, postpone, or limit narcotic or epidural pain medication, which have more serious adverse effects
- has a short lag time between requesting the gas and obtaining relief
- can be used at any time in labor right up to the birth
- increases sense of personal control, as woman chooses when to use it
- does not appear to interfere with labor progress or ability to push
- does not lower blood oxygen level
- does not appear to have adverse effects on the baby’s condition at birth
- can be discontinued more quickly than other pain medication, as its effects reverse rapidly when inhalation is discontinued
- does not require the presence of an anesthesiologist for its administration and monitoring
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