Baby Place

mgiles · Joined: 16 May 2004 Posts: 36 Location: alabama

Just curious which pain medicines during delivery reach the baby.... Shocked

laura · Joined: 09 Apr 2004 Posts: 59 Location: WV

All meds that are given by mouth or IM or IV will reach your baby. The only pain relief that won't is a epidural. I hope all goes well and by the way I don't prefer an epidural.

Materni-Tee.com · Joined: 11 May 2004 Posts: 46

Most pain releivers will affect the baby too. That's why many babies are dopey at birth these days rather than alert. But things like hot showers or baths, back rubs, cold compresses, encouragement, etc can make birth a better experience for the mother without affecting the baby. The Tens machine is also recommended by some mothers. Good luck with whatever you decide to use.

mamaof3 · Joined: 31 May 2004 Posts: 6 Location: Indy

All the medicines reach the baby, including the epidural, but it's such a small amount. They wait a while to give you the epidural & the baby is pretty much on the way out by that time. Many millions of women have used iv meds and epidural without any problems with the baby! The mail thing you have to remember with the epidural is how to push! You push like you are trying to go to the bathroom & you have to remember that because you won't feel the pushing & may not feel the contractions at all to know when to push. So the nurse will tell you when to push. If you don't know how to push the baby out, that's when they have to use the forceps or the vacuum to help the baby out! As long as you can push right, I say epidural is the way to go!!