Isn’t it kinda crazy that we just administer a drip of fentanyl into a mother giving birth?

Do people even know that’s what a epidural is?

    • med@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      7 hours ago

      A dad here, my child was born through a c-section with an epidural. The fentanyl took me by surprise as well.

      Take what I say with the knowledge that I have no medical training whatsoever. I can only tell you how it was explained to me, and what I saw, so this is entirely anecdotal.

      The answer as I understand it is, it’s technically possible, but unlikely, and if it does, it’s in very small amounts. It all depends on how long the drip is in for, and how much the mother receives. It takes a while to cross from the epidural space, in the spine, to the mothers blood stream, and very small amounts are used, as it’s really just to numb the nerves from the surgical site and down.

      From memory, I would say within 30 minutes of the epidural being administered, we had the baby out, Apgar scored, a few minutes together as a family, and then we were off across the hospital to the neonatal nursery. I had my child doing skin to skin contact on my chest, staring me in the face, very alert and searching for a nipple. Sadly mine were useless.

      45 minutes after that my partner was cleaned up, stitched back together and we were all reunited in the maternity ward. My partner was tired, spacey and a bit naseous, but able to hold our child with assistance. Baby was again awake and alert, after a quick 20 minute nap.

      My partner had never had any drugs before that weren’t OTC, and was very surprised at every sensation. Nausea from the drop in blood pressure, warmth and tingling, then the numbness, still feeling pressure and movement in the surgical area, but not pain.

      The staff were very open with us. Fentanyl was prefered because its cheaper, and when controlled, pretty safe, with few side effects. They said it was about a 10th the cost of other alternatives.

      The biggest issue was that my partner was due to have a spinal rather than an epidural, which is a singal shot administered rather than a controlled feed with the delivery tubes left in. We and the staff found out on the table she had a curvature in her spine that prevented the needle going in easily. I was called in to the theater as she was in tears from pain and anxiety after multiple failed attempts.

      They tried from vertebrae L5 up to L2 and said if that last one didn’t work, she’d have to have a general anaesthetic, and in case they were able to get the needle in, they tried an epidural instead.

      Fortunately it did work, as while an epidural needle was larger, the plastic catheter that’s left in for the procedure is flexible, and the anesthesiologist can control the dose, rather than just hoping that the spinal was in deep enough and having to delay the whole thing if they were wrong.

      All in all, it was very overwhelming, but professionally handled, and we felt as prepared as we could be. I would highly recommend finding a birthing class with someone who has given birth in the hospital you intend to use, to get first hand experience. Midwives are also excellent sources of available.