11/07/2019
Have you ever heard of sterile injections? Would you consider using this method?
Last week I was honored to support an AMAZING woman as she worked to bring her little one earthside. She has a history of nerve damage so going into it we knew it may be a difficult birth. The back pain she experienced was unlike anything I’ve witnessed in my 11+ years of doing this work. Enter the fabulous Certified Nurse Midwife Chelsea Iverson (Native Women's Health Care). While talking with Chelsea about everything we had tried (and we tried it ALL), Chelsea quickly replied, “I’ve never done this before, but why don’t we see if she’d like to try sterile water injections.” I thought it was an excellent idea. I've read so much about them, but never had the opportunity to see it during birth. Chelsea ran through informed consent and my client quickly agreed she wanted to give it a try.
It worked. It worked AMAZINGLY well. For the last four hours of her labor the intense back pain vanished enough to get her through transition and to get that sweet little baby in her arms. I credit our fabulous midwife Chelsea for thinking out of the box in providing such individualized care in this. It was so wonderful to see this done in the hospital setting!
Evidence Based Birth has this to say about sterile water injections. “Sterile water injections work through something called the diffuse noxious inhibitory control method. The idea is that by painfully stimulating the lower back with these sterile injections, it causes the brain to release its own internal supply of morphine, called endorphins.” ACOG agrees that sterile water injections have demonstrated statistically significant enough reductions for pain in many studies. In Canada, the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists issued new guidance on sterile water injections in 2018, and they concluded with this summary statement: “The diffuse noxious inhibitory control (which consists of applying painful stimulation at any site of the body for the duration of each painful contraction) is best achieved through acupressure, sterile water injections or deep massage.”
Sterile water injections are just another fabulous alternative therapy when needed.
https://evidencebasedbirth.com/sterile-water-injections-for-pain-relief-during-labor/
photocred: IG