A mother in Newcastle has become the first person in the UK to use climate-friendly pain relief while giving birth.
Entonox – better known as gas and air – has been used to quell pain during labour for more than a century.
The drug is a mix of oxygen and nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas which is 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide. It escapes into the atmosphere after being exhaled.
In a British first, Kaja Gersinka used a new device which turns exhaled nitrous oxide into harmless nitrogen and oxygen.
She used the Mobile Destruction Unit (MDU) while giving birth on September 9 to her daughter Rosie Martha O’Sullivan, weighing 6llb 6oz.
Kaja Gersinka, pictured with her daughter Rosie who was born on Thursday at the Newcastle Birthing Centre, was the first person in the UK to use the climate-friendly pain relief device called the Mobile Destruction Unit
Ms Gersinka said: ‘I didn’t expect this when I came here today – I just came to have my baby – but I started on the traditional machine and then swapped over.’
The new machine (pictured) works by collecting the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide that women breathe out when using gas and air and turning it into harmless chemicals oxygen and nitrogen. More than 99 per cent of the nitrous oxide it collects is then turned into harmless oxygen and nitrogen – the main components of the air we breathe. It does this by heating up the nitrous oxide to a point that it breaks apart
Ms Gersinka, whose age is unknown, said: ‘I didn’t expect this when I came here – I just came to have my baby.
‘But I started on the traditional machine and then swapped over.
How does a Mobile Destruction Unit work?
Gas and air – known medically as entonox – has been used for more than a century to manage pain during child birth.
But it contains contains a mix of nitrous oxide and oxygen, which are powerful greenhouse gas that escape into the atmosphere after being exhaled by mothers using the pain relief.
The Mobile Destruction Unit, which was developed by Swedish environmental healthcare company Medclair, involves mothers wearing a mask that collects the harmful chemicals they breathe out.
More than 99 per cent of the nitrous oxide it collects is then turned into harmless oxygen and nitrogen – the main components of the air we breathe.
It does this by heating up the nitrous oxide to a point that it breaks apart.
Advertisement
‘It was quieter and much more comfortable to hold – it’s nice to make a little bit of history.’
The MDU, developed by a Swedish firm, works by purifying the nitrous oxide that patients exhale into it.
The machine does this by heating up the nitrous oxide to a point that it breaks apart.
Rosie, who was delivered by midwife Lindsay Craney, is Ms Gersinka’s and her partner’s Craig O’Sullivan’s second child.
They already have a two-year-old daughter called Cassie.
As well as being greener, the technology – developed by Swedish environmental healthcare company Medclair – also benefits staff by reducing the amount of nitrous oxide they are exposed to while they work.
Chris Allen, from at Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: ‘Rolling this technology out across our maternity unit can help us to continue to support women to use gas and air during labour, whilst making it as environmentally friendly as possible.
‘We have an ambitious plan to become a global leader in sustainable healthcare delivery and introducing innovative technology like this can help us to achieve that.’
Jonas Lundh, chief executive of Medclair, said: ‘Working in the green medtech area I’m extremely impressed by the NHS Newcastle team, I’ve never seen such a display of action on the fact that there is a global climate crisis as we saw in Newcastle.
‘We are delighted to be a supplier to the trust and we look forward to Rosie’s generation being born in a climate friendly way.’
Source link : https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9988979/Mother-labour-use-greener-gas-air.html
