Pethidine is an opiate medication which is injected into your thigh or buttock to help relieve pain. Pethidine can make you feel drowsy and sedated some women can feel nauseous and the midwife will usually offer an anti-sickness medication at the same time. Pethidine does cross through the placenta and your midwife will generally avoid administration close to the latter stages of labour due to the possibility of your baby being born sedated.
It can take around 20 minutes to become effective and won’t take away the pain completely. The effects will last between 2-4 hours. If you wish to use the birth pool we recommend that you wait for at least 2-4 hours after you have had pethidine.