Pain during labor is no joke, but nitrous oxide won't have any ill effects

During the COVID-19 pandemic, women in labor refuse to use nitrous oxide ("laughing gas") to relieve labor pain, but they switch to opioids, which are harmful to mothers or children, a new study of Australian clinicians show.

A study was carried out at Adelaide's Lyle McIrwin Hospital looking at the impact of sequestering nitrous oxide (N20.

Anaesthetist Professor Bernd Froessler and colleagues from the Universities of Adelaide and South Australia compared patient records from all 243 women who gave birth at Lyle McIrwin over a seven-week period in March/April 2020, Half of them did not get an N20.

They found that while there was a "significant increase" in opioid use when N20 was withheld, there was no increase in epidural use, and no change in delivery time, caesarean section rate, delivery complications or neonatal alertnes.

Their findings were published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecolog.

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, more than 50 per cent of Australian women use nitrous oxide for pain relief in labour, followed by epidurals (40 per cent) and opioids (12 per cent.

However, its carbon footprint (6% of global gas emissions, 1% of which comes from healthcare) has sparked a debate in the medical community as to whether it should be replaced with other pain relief method.

Many obstetricians believe that effective pain relief during labour should be a priority, especially given the low discharge rate, but the Australian and New Zealand College of anesthesia advocates for reducing N20 use, To improve the sustainability of the anesthesia environmen.

"Obviously, no one wants to deprive expectant women of adequate and easy pain relief, but given that there are other pain relief options, including epidurals and opioids, these may be considered," Professor Fleisler sai.

Dr Lan Kelly, a statistician and researcher at the National University of England, said the findings should reassure women that pain relief other than nitrous oxide is not harming their or their baby's healt.

However, in a recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian College of Midwives' chief midwifery officer Kelly Wilton said mothers should not be made to feel guilty about their pain management choices and suggested that hospitals could introduce a Nitrous oxide destroys the system, allowing it to continue to be use.

When Swedish hospitals introduced nitrous oxide destruction systems, the gas's carbon footprint was cut in hal.