Does Using Laughing Gas During Labor Have Side Effects?

Hospitals can introduce nitrous oxide (‘laughing gas’) for relieving labor pain during pregnancy, as there are no side effects.

Nitrous Oxide or‘laughing gas’ can be used during labor to reduce pain and make birthing easy for pregnant women.

Birthing women denied nitrous oxide to relieve labor pain during the COVID-19 pandemic have turned to opioids instead, without any adverse outcomes for mother or child, according to a new study by Australian clinicians.

Laughing Gas During Labor

The study, at Lyell McEwin Hospital in Adelaide, looked at the impact of withholding nitrous oxide (N2O), a decision adopted by numerous hospitals worldwide in the past two years due to fears of virus transmission from the aerosol-generating procedure.

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‘Hospitals can introduce nitrous oxide (‘laughing gas’) for relieving labor pain during pregnancy.’

Anesthetist Professor Bernd Froessler and colleagues from the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia compared patient notes for all 243 women birthing at Lyell McEwin over a seven-week period in March/April 2020, half of whom did not have access to N2O.

They found that although opioid use “significantly increased” when N2O was withheld, there was no increase in epidural use and no change in labor duration, Cesarean section rates, birthing complications or newborn alertness.

Their findings have been published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

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Nitrous Oxide is used by more than 50 percent of Australian women to relieve pain in labor, followed by epidurals (40 percent) and opioids (12 percent), according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

However, its carbon footprint (representing 6 percent of global gas emissions, with 1 percent due to healthcare) has led to a debate in medical circles about whether it should be replaced with other methods of pain relief.

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Nitrous oxide also known as laughing gas is widely used as part of the mixture of agents for general anesthesia. It is simple to administer and helps with pain.

Many obstetricians argue that effective pain relief in childbirth should be the priority, particularly given the low percentage of emissions, but the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists has advocated for a reduction in N2O use in a bid to improve environmental sustainability in anesthesia.

“Obviously no one wants to deprive laboring women of adequate and easy pain relief but given there are other analgesic options, including epidurals and opioids, perhaps these could be considered,” says Prof Froessler.

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UniSA statistician and researcher Dr. Lan Kelly says, the study results should reassure women that pain relief other than Nitrous Oxide does not compromise their health or their babies.

However, in a recent Sydney Morning Herald article, principal midwifery officer at the Australian College of Midwives, Kellie Wilton, said mothers should not be made to feel guilty about their pain relief choices and suggested hospitals could introduce nitrous oxide destruction systems to allow for its ongoing use.

When Nitrous Oxide destruction systems were introduced in Swedish hospitals, the carbon footprint from the gas was halved.

Source-Eurekalert