this is your birth on drugs

[primroseburrows]

I thought I'd lost my wtf about the fuckery that goes on during hospital births a long time ago, but hmm, guess not.


From Molly Remer's Talk Birth blog:

'I recently finished reading the new book Birth Space, Safe Place by Adela Stockton (watch for my full review and a giveaway on the CfM blog next week!). The author lives in Scotland and something in the book’s glossary jumped out and caught my eye. The word was “diamorphine” and the definition was: “a semi-synthetic opoid for labour—only administered in Scotland; another name for heroin.”

The irony that giving heroin to women in labor is considered a medically acceptable practice, but that “letting” a woman labor without an IV or in water—as some of many examples—is considered unsafe or risky is so boggling my mind that I can’t even comment any further!'

I'd rant, but I really don't know what to say.

Comments

[dragonflymuse.livejournal.com]

While the idea of using heroin as an analgesic for labour and delivery is very wtf-erish, I will be a naysayer to the quotation's indignancy by saying that heroin is a known, controllable variable: things get dicey with it? Hell-OOOOO Narcan! I flag-wave for IV access because the last thing I want to do when a patient starts bleeding out is to try and pop a vein that's flat (personal experience speaking, with a four-year old). Water-labouring seems benign, but I don't want to haul someone out of a bathtub if they start seizing or some other unforseen emergency occurs (yes, more personal experience speaking: I will never put another neuro kid in a bath again!)

[primroseburrows.livejournal.com]

I agree that heroin isn't really all that different than other opiates, but IMO they all suck for labour.

And yeah, maybe I wouldn't want someone hospitalized with and/or for a seizure disorder hanging out in a bathtub, but a healthy pregnant woman is at a really low risk for seizure.