Do US hospitals do "gas and air"?? For some reason I think that they dont, but does anyone know? And what exactly is the "gas" part?? I know they slap the face masks on, but I believe its only oxygen if the fetal heartrate drops.

I had never heard of using gas and air (originally from the US) until I joined this forum

Me neither...Ive asked my sister since shes a nurse and she said they stopped doing it years ago here because of serious adverse reactions..

what on earth do you use as pain relief then!?

lol

The only one that I know of is a low dose Demerol, which does not agree with me without projectile repercussions..if you know what I mean..hehe

I had not heard of it either. I think the epi rate in the US is really high, about 60-90% depending on the hospital.

http://www.babycentre.co.uk/pregnanc...elief/entonox/

We dont have to have masks here either its like a sucky thing you can put in your mouth to breath it in.
Some women swear by it and others makes them feel a bit spacey and nauseus. hope this helps.

It's nitrous oxide... laughing gas.

Some midwives still use it I think, otherwise hospitals go with IV drugs to help with pain. I think the idea is that those IV drugs are more predictable than entonox for pain relief.

Also, as we know laughing gas doesn't really do anything to subdue the pain, it just makes the person under the effects of the gas "not care".

as sonny said it is also called entonox - i had it once and it freaked me out , i couldnt control myself!!! Not sure how i am going to cope on it this time, but i intend to give it a go!!

Margerle to the rescue!!