You often question my best ideas.
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On the other hand, itās easy to dismiss somebody elseās pain. In fact, some doctors do it routinely.
My wifeās delivery did not go smoothly. After 12 hours of labor, she still didnāt dilate properly, and needed a c-section. If she had lived in the Golden Age of Tough Mothers, she would simply have died. As it was, she was very very grateful for her epidural. Not a typical story, but a true one.
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My wife just gave birth and we left open the possibility for using painkillers until she was in the moment. She opted for fentanyl. It wears off quickly so you do not need to worry about long term effects. Also they donāt let you have it in the final push so that you get proper feedback for the actual birth. I would suggest not getting the epidural so that you have NO risk of nicking the spine. Best wishes and good luck with the little one!
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Was offered to my wife at UCSF in San Francisco. She didnāt partake tho.
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Iāll wager you face a far higher risk of death driving to the dentistās office than you do being administered nitrous.
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Arenāt women advised not to travel in the final weeks of pregnancy? Goes triple for travel by air.
I wouldnāt take that bet! Iām just relaying what one dentist told me.
Wait, what if the car ran on Novocain?
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Well, I suspect your risk would be greatly reduced, seeing how youād never leave the driveway 
Dentists donāt know enough about anaesthesiology, so they donāt do it any more. Killed a few people.
Actually, the travel restrictions have less to do with āOMG HEALTH RISKSā and more to do with āOMG LOGISTICAL ISSUES AND POTENTIAL AIRLINE LIABILITYā.
Hereās how my doctor has explained it: There technically nothing dangerous to you or your fetus about being on an airplane or in a car. But, thereās a five week window when labor could basically happen anytime, statistically speaking. Do you want to be far from home and end up with a doctor/midwife you donāt know and a setting you hadnāt planned on? Do you want to be on an airplane and have the inconvenience of public labor and an emergency landing? (The airlines definitely donāt want that and will often restrict flights for women past 30 weeks.) Itās your call about what youāre comfortable with. And if youād planned on birth in Canada and had the logistics worked out, it probably wouldnāt be a big deal. But, if not, it could be a situation that some people wouldnāt want to be in.
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I had a similar thought. āI can see why, say, Yorkshire fathers-to-be would prefer to be around either whippets or racing pigeons, but I didnāt think they allowed them in the hospital.ā
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I think they stopped using it due to all of the lawsuits in the 80s involving dentists gassing and molesting their patients.
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Thunder Bay is only a 6 hour drive. You can make it!
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As I noted, I was making no judgments on anyone else, as every experience is completely different. Obviously, if we had complications we would have ditched the birthing center and gone straight to a hospital 5 minutes away, gotten a c-section, etc. The point is not that people who use drugs are evil, itās that we are quick to dismiss the āno drugā option because it seems just way too impossible to contemplate. Itās actually a viable choice with some great benefits no one ever mentions, thatās all. My wife is not a tough person by any stretch of the imagination- it just meant a lot for her to try this route, and that mental focus was what got her through. But every person is made differently and has different values, which is fine. Iām just throwing this option into the ring.
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Almost certainly true; but dying in your car makes you somebody elseās problem, while dying in the chair makes you the dentistās problem (or, probably scarier, makes the dentistās malpractice insurer the dentistās problemā¦)
My partner has been denied nitrous oxide during multiple dental procedures. The justification was that it put the female staff at risk for āspontaneous abortions.ā
A cursory look online indicates this is total horseshit.
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Meanwhile in our rural hospital in the most remote OECD country you could have your choice of Entonox (Nitrous/Oxygen mix); Pethidine (if you must); TENS; Remifentanil PCA; or an epidural for your labour, if the others donāt work out. And all free at point of access with no worries about insurance.
Sometimes I really wonder about the USA and its odd priorities ā¦ 
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Canadian here. My wife had a constant stream of NO at her bedside before she happily popped our daughter out. Daddy may have taken a few hits for science. ā¦oh yeah, and the whole two day birth with NO and everything cost me $36 in parkingā¦ thatās it.
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The grand problem you get to face is that you will not know until you get into labour and even during the experience things may change. I have found that advice on pregnancy and child rearing is the ultimate in single point anecdotal evidence being pushed as absolutes. The entire āI didnāt need drugs, neither will you.ā or āIf I did not have my child in a hospital i am convince they would have died, so same goes for youā
Throwing in another āmy wifeā¦ā My wife did not find nitrous did much for her. If you were in a different country you could try during labour and compare. My sister-in-laws both had children last year. One was going for HOME BIRTH the other had a midwife but was going to give birth in a Hospital. Of course the one planning for home birth had complications in the weeks before and gave birth in hospital, the one planning a hospital birth had an impatient child and used the living room (the midwife that was going to be at the hospital did not consider this much of an issue and came to the home).
I agree with the others yet another the USA is weird on the NO. Anyway best of luck with whatever form of untold agony or āwait that was itā experience you have.
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Bring Food - may not be an issue for Maggie but that was what my wife needed from outside the hospital. Aaaaand you could always bring a whip cream dispenser and some extra cartridges.
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