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A car comes screeching to a halt in the car park outside and half a minute later an anxious husband ushers his pensive partner through the double doors of the hospital entrance. Hours later in the maternity ward, and the proud father-to-be watches as his wife is administered with Entonox, an analgesic mixture of nitrous oxide gas and oxygen.
The Entonox gas is provided at hospitals as a relaxant, to calm screaming mothers through the painful labour process. It is just one of a number of areas in which industrial and medical gases are effective throughout the daily life of a busy public hospital.
Gas and air
Entonox, or ‘gas and air’ as it is often referred to, is the trademark name for a mixture of nitrous oxide (N2O) and oxygen (O2) and comprises 50% of each. Prospective mothers are often offered this potent yet harmless gas mixture at the start of the labour process, inhaled at the start of a contraction and until the contraction peaks or the individual indicates she’s had enough. At the height of a given contraction and intense pain, Entonox takes the edge off the pain sensation and also helps to calm the patient by serving to numb the pain centre in the brain.
Administered by inhalation from a cylinder or pipeline supply at a pressure of 137 bar, the analgesic effect of ‘gas and air’ is quite strong at the equivalent to 5-10mg of morphine and is characterised by a rapid onset and offset, meaning it is both very fast acting but can also wear-off quite rapidly.
This medical gas is therefore ideally suited for ladies close to the pain barrier during the labour process and has an important comforting role to play, for many mothers-to-be across the UK and the world.
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