Читать книгу New Active Birth: A Concise Guide to Natural Childbirth - Janet Balaskas - Страница 11

This is a narcotic-like analgesic used to ‘take the edge’ off pain. Given usually as an intramuscular injection, some women find it makes labour more tolerable and others that it causes them to lose control. There are possible side effects to the mother, such as nausea or dizziness, and it will slow down the mother’s breathing and respiration, hence reducing the baby’s oxygen supply. Often Pethidine is mixed with sedatives to reduce nausea and these too will cause sleepiness and enter the baby’s bloodstream.

It is now common knowledge that Pethidine can depress the baby’s respiratory system and jeopardise the start of breathing after birth, resulting in the need to resuscitate the baby (5).

Traces sometimes remain in the baby’s system after birth so that, in addition to adjusting to life outside the womb, the baby’s system will have the added burden of detoxification (6). They can also depress the baby’s sucking reflex and because they remain in the baby’s system for several weeks they can affect the initiation of breastfeeding and mother-infant bonding (7).