Don’t Be Silly, Women Don’t Need Proper Pain Medication For Childbirth

They’re recommending what for pain relief in childbirth? You’ve got to be kidding me.

I lay back, legs akimbo, trying to relax so the doctor could do her job.

Whichever way she tried, it didn’t work, and my body responded to the poking and prodding by shutting down and closing up.

Each attempt felt like a Bruce Lee kick to the stomach.

Three doctors tried inserting an IUD (contraceptive coil), and three failed. I was not given pain relief or advised to take anything before my appointment.

Pain is an individual experience

We all experience pain differently. What’s excruciating for one person may be a minor irritation for another. According to this piece in the Scientific American, there are gender differences in how we feel pain; women tend to hurt more than men

And yet, local anesthetics are routinely used for vasectomies but rarely for fitting a coil.

It’s not just me

I believed I was an anomaly and failed to recognise the verging-on barbaric experience of my failed coil insertion. With unquestioning faith in the doctors, I presumed they knew what they were doing and that procedures are developed with the patient's well-being at their core.

A few years later, women united online, discussing their experiences of pain while having the coil fitted. Some reported passing out from the pain, while others spoke of enduring the worst pain imaginable.

So I wasn’t the only one.

One thing is unanimous: doctors routinely underestimated how painful the coil fitting process is, and the pain mitigation options are inadequate.

Years after my coil experience, I learned of some medical practices using a local anesthetic and other painkillers to help women endure such an excruciating procedure.

So why was I poked, prodded, and given nothing but a kick in the stomach and no successful coil?

Local anesthetics are still a rarity for fitting a coil. But please, do not hesitate to ask for this; your pain is real.

It gets worse — or does it?

So you see, the medical world has a history of underestimating women’s pain, expecting them to suck it up while wrapping men in bubble wrap, and dosing them up to high doh if they get an ouchie.

Women are more likely to seek pain treatment but also more likely to receive inadequate treatment. Medical organisations around the world continue to minimise and dismiss women’s pain.

What do women have to do to be heard? Heck, there will be some men out there who think their man flu is worse than childbirth!

But what I read the other day left me incredulous.

Are you as dumbfounded as I was?

So, in summary, the UK organisation, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), recommends sterile water as a pain killer for childbirth.

Sterile water!

How exactly does sterile water in childbirth work?

So here’s the thing. My outrage fuelled my research, and I’ll be honest: I wanted to find more evidence of outrageous and sexist medical practices. I expected to find a panel of white men on the board of NICE and a one-page suggestion of using sterile water during childbirth as an almost joke suggestion that became policy.

But it seems more thought has been given to this than the mob on the platform formerly known as Twitter (X) insinuated.

There’s a 132-page review document titled Intrapartum Care, Evidence Review For Sterile Water Injections.

My knee-jerk reaction was sterile water as a pain reliever in childbirth was like sticking a band-aid over a severed limb.

I wanted to shout with the crowd. But I did my due diligence. And my anger dissipated a little.

I’m not a medic, so I can’t pretend to understand the document fully (ok, ok, you got me, I didn’t read every page). But it seems that sterile water is purely for relieving back pain during labour.

It is not used as an alternative to gas and air, or an epidural. And this is perhaps where the confusion lies, which started the outcry avalanche.

Exactly how sterile water works, I couldn’t summarise. Is it placebo and pseudoscience, as suggested? Maybe.

But amongst all the horror, there are a few whispers in the discussion that testify to its effectiveness.

The document reviewed 11 studies, seven of which were randomised control trials. According to the trials, injecting sterile water into the advised points in the back is more effective than saline injections, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), massage, water bath, and movement.

Remember, it’s not instead of gas and air, or an epidural.

The obvious question is whether women can be given stronger pain relief for back pain during labour, as opposed to massage, saline or water injections, or a bubble bath. All these sound a bit tokenistic. Like a patronising pat on the back and a “there there.”

One thing for certain: reading this report in no way changes my mind about pregnancy. Pregnancy remains at the top of my list of things I never ever want to experience.

Is it all about money?

I do have a question about the finances. The 132-page report opens up with:

“Injections of sterile water have been suggested as an effective method to treat back pain for women in labour. They have the potential to provide a cheap and relatively easy method of pain relief…”

Does the cheapness affect the prevalence of this pain modality? And should the cost of pain treatment be a consideration when it comes to childbirth?

If women endure more pain than necessary as a cost-cutting exercise, that would be scandalous.

I’m not so sure anymore

It seems I was that sucker, along with thousands of others who fell into the angry mob before looking into the facts.

During my research, I went looking for the monster intentionally withholding adequate pain relief from women, at perhaps the most excruciating time of their lives, but I couldn’t find him. I think he’s hanging out with the Loch Ness monster.

Maybe I’m missing something. Perhaps there are still grounds for outrage; to be fair, plenty of medical professionals online are outraged, so what do I know?

What’s your take on the use of sterile water in childbirth?

Have you experienced sterile injections during labour? Did it work for you?

Thanks for reading Ali Hall