Diamorphine

[pixie_woo]

Hi All. I have been trying to find out if my hospital uses diamorphine as a pain relief option for labour, I have read that it carries fewer risks than pethidine. Well, I couldn't find any info on whether hosp uses it so I just typed in "Diamorphine" to see what results it brought up. 90% of the results seem to suggest that diamorphine IS heroin!
I'm so confused. Can anyone put me straight?

TIA

p.s I have also posted this in pregnancy section

[lilmonkey]

Diamorphine is an opiate, and is a stronger, purer form of morphine so basically yes, it is heroin! (but without the added ingredients put in by drug dealers to make it go further!)

[redcrx]

Diamorphine lasts longer and is stronger than pethadine so can only be given early in labour as if effects baby.

speak to your midwife, if they dont know if its available then arrange to take a tour of the maternity wards and ask lots of questions there.

[ethandron]

i always thought pethadine and diamorphine were the same thing to be honest, so you learn something everyday. however, i do seem to remember that pethadine too could only be given in early labour. maybe my memory is playing tricks, but i would be interested to know.

[bensmum]

I wasn't aware that Diamorphine was offered in labour (then again I am pretty old!). I had pethidine when I had my first baby and was away with the fairies for a couple of hours afterwards! Under different circumstances that might have been quite nice but I don't think it helped the labour much - if anything it seemed to slow it down. I now have a large note on my medical record that I should not have it but I was given diamorphine as a pain killer and although that made me pleasantly woozy it didn't have the same effect.

[pixie_woo]

Look what I found! Its amazing what comes out of Google if you type in the right thing

http://www.aims.org.uk/effectDrugsOnBabies.htm (sorry can't figure out how to make it a link)

Its a bit dry (its a medical paper) but it suggests that pethadine is "safer" than diamorphine and babies born to pethadine mothers had a higher Apgar (appearance, pulse, grimace, activity, respiration) rating than babies born to diamorphine mothers.

Basically, the opposite to what I'd read.

[jake-the-peg]

Well you don't think they're going to tell people who are being perscribed diamorphine that it's Heroin to all intents and purposes do you?

They'd have a fit!

My wife was given one dose of diamorphine after her C-section.

And it seems as if it's now given at some hospitals in the early stages of labour.
here for example:http://www.womens-health.co.uk/pain.asp

Why don't you have a talk to your mid-wife about it?

[bednobs]

diamorphine is heroin.

it would be very unusual for your maternity unit to give diamorphone, and even more so at the moment as for the last year there has been a nationwide shortage of the drug