Labor & Delivery

Medical Insight - Laughing Gas Video Transcript

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The Essentia Health logo appears, consisting of three leaves in a circle. Text, Medical Insight. Christina Harmon sits on her couch speaking to an interviewer, holding her infant daughter Addy. Addy sucks quietly on a pacifier.

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TRACY BRIGGS: Christina Harmon is savoring the last few weeks of maternity leave with her two-month-old daughter Addy before heading back to work. As she enjoys some late-morning snuggles, she reflects on how something most-commonly associated with a dentist's office helped make delivering her daughter much more comfortable. She used nitrous oxide, or as it's more commonly known, "laughing gas" while in labor.

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Text, Laughing Gas. A breathing mask is shown in a photograph, held by a healthcare professional.

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CHRISTINA HARMON: It makes me feel extremely relaxed. For me, it definitely took the edge off of the pain. I almost felt a little bit loopy. But the good thing is as soon as you feel like you've had enough, you can pull the mask away from your face, and the effects wear off almost instantly. TRACY BRIGGS: It might not be generating giggles, but Essentia Health certified-nurse-midwife Mandi Brodeur says many moms like Harmon are choosing laughing gas during labor after Essentia Health became the first hospital in the region to offer it earlier this year.

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Mandi Brodeur, certified nurse midwife, speaks to the camera.

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MANDI BRODEUR: The gas itself is not going to take the pain away like some of the other pain-relief methods would. But a very good at reducing anxiety. And it's very good at making you kind of disassociate from the pain. So it kind of makes you care less that you're in pain, for lack of a better word.

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Brodeur demonstrates pulling the mask from its stand near a patient bed.

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TRACY BRIGGS: Brodeur says women choosing to use the colorless, odorless gas simply place the mask over their mouth and nose as they feel a contraction starting. As a contraction intensifies, mom will take a deep breath of the gas, while having the ability to take the mask off in-between contractions. MANDI BRODEUR: If you get an epidural, you're confined to your bed, so you can't get up and move, whereas the nitrous oxide can be used sitting on the birthing ball, or in the tub, or walking around, if you feel up to it. TRACY BRIGGS: Studies show laughing gas has no adverse effects on the fetus. And only a few moms report feeling lightheaded or nauseated. CHRISTINA HARMON: I've already told just about everybody I know to definitely look into it. It's a great alternative to having any type of pain medicines. So if you want natural labor, it's wonderful because you can still have that, but it helps you get through it a little bit more comfortably. TRACY BRIGGS: With this Essentia Health medical insight, I'm Tracy Briggs.

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The Essentia Health logo appears, consisting of three leaves in a circle. Text, Medical Insight.

Nicole's Story Video Transcript

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A woman with a young girl on a hillside. The girl slides through leaves on the ground. The woman tosses leaves in the air.

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[BABY SQUEALING]NICOLE EVERSON: My name's Nicole Everson. I work as an environmental consultant. My daughter is Emily. And she is 2 and 1/2 years old.

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Nicole, Emily, Nicole's husband and a baby at a sandbox.

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She is wild and crazy, super intelligent. My husband and I, we had gotten married pretty recently. And we knew we wanted to start a family. I had plans to do a holistic birth.

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Staff and patient room at a health facility, A wall sign reads, The Birthplace

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I was really excited because Essentia offered low intervention birthing, and had this great plan of following in my mom's footsteps. She had both my sister and myself with no pain medications. She was present for both of our births and can remember all the details really well. And that was something that I was really interested in. My pregnancy was so uneventful. It was really easy. I felt great.

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A sonogram depicts a uterus. A hand holds a sonoscope on a woman's pregnant belly.

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Close to the end, I developed a condition called polyhydramnios. It's when you have too much amniotic fluid around 36, 37 weeks. I think I was measuring like 45 weeks. So I was really enormous. I was starting to swell. And

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169 over 118 on a blood pressure meter

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I was monitoring my blood pressure at home. And it was starting to rise a little bit. They had to go forth with some suggestions for inducing and things like that because it was a dangerous level. Lots of scary things happened. And lots of unexpected things happened. So I was bummed. But I also was really, really excited to meet my daughter. And I knew I could trust the team of people that I was with. There was never a moment where I felt like I didn't have a choice, and felt like I was being pressured into anything. We went forth with the induction. They made sure everything was all happy and fine. And Dr. Greenleaf came in and sat on my bed because she knew, I mean, we were already kind of grieving this together because she knew I didn't want this. And she was just so kind. And she put her hand on my leg. And she just sat with me and said, you have about an hour left of pushing that we can give you before we have to do a c-section. I can remember them cutting open. And everything was fine.

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Newborn and mom

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My daughter was born. She was crying. It was beautiful. They laid her on my chest. Everybody was so respectful of keeping things calm for me.

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The family of four at the sandbox.

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And I was able to remain calm the entire time. My midwife, she was present for almost every hour of my 32-hour labor. She went and put her kids to bed once and had dinner with them. And she was right back with me. I guess I've never really thought how hard things really have been, and how hard things were, and how scary they were, and how lucky we are. And I just kind of rode the waves. And we just made our way through it. I feel like we're a really happy family. And we have gone through a lot of stuff that is really hard. I feel like the actual physical care I received is absolutely unmatched. I would never consider going anywhere else. [GENTLE MUSIC]

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Text, Like Nowhere ElseThe Essentia Health logo, consisting of three leaves in a circle.