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Laughing Gas Now An Option For More Minn. Mothers

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Hospitals across the Twin Cities are now bringing back a pain relief option that was widely used decades ago -- laughing gas.

Lacee and Dalton Outlaw are thrilled to have a second baby boy. His birth last week was much different than his brother's was two years ago.

"My grandma, during my first labor, when I was going all natural, was praying with her cross like it was an exorcism," Lacee said. "It didn't feel like something happy."

It wasn't a fun experience, Dalton added.

"It was definitely scary," the boy's father said. "It was the first time, our firstborn, so it was definitely even more scary."

For her second delivery, Lacee opted for laughing gas, or nitrous oxide, as she experienced contractions.

"When I felt like I was going to start having one, I would start inhaling...then I would stop for a minute just to see if it was allowing my body to relax, which it was," Lacee said.

A few months ago, Fairview Health Services started offering laughing gas at all five of its labor and delivery hospitals, including University of Minnesota Masonic Children's hospital.

"It's clear there is not significant effect on babies," said Ann Forster Page, a nurse/midwife director for Fairview. "It's an option for women where they can have control over delivering it for themselves. It takes the edge off and helps with anxiety as well."

Laughing gas is commonly used by women during labor in Canada and Europe, and had been very common in the U.S. until the 1950s, when epidurals became popular.

"This time everybody was just calm," Lacee said. "We had a birth photographer, the pictures -- it doesn't even look like I'm in labor."

Other hospitals in the Twin Cities now offering laughing gas during labor and delivery include Hennepin County Medical Center and Abbott Northwestern hospital in Minneapolis.

Does laughing gas completely take away the pain?

No, not at all. It reduces the anxiety, allowing a mother to deal with the pain better.

After using the laughing gas during contractions, women can still get an epidural if they feel they need more pain relief.

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