Hospitals are stopping the use of pain-relieving gas and air for mothers to over fears for midwives’ safety.
NHS Trusts have sought to temporarily suspend the use of laughing gas following concerns that medical staff are being exposed to dangerous levels in the workplace.
According to a newspaper outlet, the nitrous oxide and oxygen combination has been measured at 50 times higher than safety caps in some NHS units, but suspensions have also been labelled madness with the popular choice of pain relief taken out of reach for some.
Pregnant Amy Fantis is due to have her baby at the Princess Alexandra hospital in Essex which stopped use of the Entonox gas last month.
While the hospital has ordered machines which can break up the gas into unharmful components, it presently only has three of these to hand.
As a consequence, the hospital stressed that it may not be able to deliver gas and air to everyone who would like to use it and would prioritise use on a case-by-case basis.
Amy told the publication this was a stress that she didn’t need, having been dependent on the pain relief while giving birth four years ago.
She said that it wasn’t available to everyone and that she might not get it, and that her birth might only be 40 minutes, but that it was a stress that she didn’t need and that she understood that they have to keep midwives safe but to just take it away seems madness, and it would be the poor mums that would be paying the price.
Joanna Keable, head of midwifery at The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust also added that mothers should be reassured that there was no risk, with safety concerns only arising with prolonged exposure.
She said that they should be reassured that there’s no risk to mothers, birthing people, their partners and babies and that the use of Entonox was temporarily suspended to protect their midwifery and medical teams from prolonged exposure to nitrous oxide in the atmosphere arising from the patient use of gas and air.
And she thanked all of the women and families who use their services to their maternity and medical team for their understanding and support.
It was said that increased levels of nitrous oxide had also previously been detected at a number of trusts including Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King’s Lynn, and Watford General Hospital.
Before Watford General Hospital had installed air purifiers, it experienced levels 50 times above nitrous oxide safety caps last year.
Essex’s Basildon University Hospital was reportedly among the hospitals that temporarily discontinued the use of the gas but have since reinstated it following an investigation and additional ventilation measures.
A BBC report suggests that the Health and Safety Executive recorded a total of 11 nitrous oxide incidents in NHS trusts between August 2018 and December 2022.
Ipswich Hospital also temporarily stopped pain relief last year but is now using it again following the installation of new ventilation units.
An NHS England spokesman told a newspaper outlet that NHS England has been working with the Trusts where gas and air supplies have been affected due to differing and localised issues, and this was not a widespread issue and patients should continue to access services as normal.
It appears that they want to send us back to the dark ages in all facets of our lives, although lots of surgeries are done with conscious anaesthetics these days, but before long they’ll be handing you a stick to bite down on and a swig of cheap alcohol.
I wonder what it will be next, will they refuse to drive to work in case they’re run over, and pregnant mums in labour have to go to them?
Nitrous oxide, generally known as laughing gas is a chemical compound. At room temperature, it’s a colourless non flammable gas and has a slightly sweet scent and taste, and at elevated temperatures, nitrous oxide is a powerful oxidiser similar to molecular oxygen.
Nitrous oxide has significant medical benefits, particularly in surgery and dentistry, for anaesthetic and pain-reducing effects.
Its colloquial name, ‘laughing gas’, coined by Humphry Davy, is due to the euphoric effects upon inhaling it, a property that’s led to its recreational use as a dissociative anaesthetic.
It’s on the World Health Organisation’s list of Essential Medicines. It’s also used as an oxidiser in rocket propellants, and in motor racing to improve the power output of engines.
Hospitals need to vent this stuff safely so it’s not a danger in the workplace, and if so, this ‘laughing gas’ shouldn’t be a threat to anaesthetists and medical staff.
What will be next? Will they stop surgeons from using sharp implements in case they cut themselves? And I hope no wokies don’t see this because then any scheduled surgeries could be in for a blunt plastic scalpel anytime soon.
I’m now starting to wonder if hospitals have done this as a cost-cutting measure.
And if this ‘laughing gas’ is so harmful why has it not been reported before? Perhaps it’s because they couldn’t stop laughing.
Gas and air has been about for a rather long time. The first gas and air device used as a form of pain alleviation in labour was developed in 1935. They increased in popularity after the Second World War, and in particular during the first two decades of the NHS.
If gas and air are stopped there would likely be an increased chance of more epidurals, which is temporarily debilitating for the woman, and carries a risk, but gas and air would essentially lower the nominal risk that has been there for an extremely long time, by increasing the greater risks to the mother and baby.
It appears that they don’t care about the patient, now it’s all about health and safety, and during the pandemic, hundreds of women were forced to wear face masks while giving birth.
And one woman said that she said she felt like she was dying because she was in so much pain, and that while she was pushing the baby out she had to have this mask on her face and that the feeling of claustrophobia was just massive.
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