The use of laughing gas instead of an epidural during labor is gaining popularity across America since it was first approved in 2012.
A birthing center in Minnesota is the newest facility now added to the growing list that offers the gas to mothers delivering babies in America, reported CBS Local.
Laughing gas, otherwise known as nitrous oxide, is a gas that you breathe in to endure a "happy drunk" feeling. It's commonly used in dentistry, but it began making its way to delivery rooms when the FDA approved it for use during labor in 2012.
Jenna White, a new mom from Minnesota, was planning to deliver naturally until she learned about laughing gas.
"It felt more like a middle ground than getting an epidural," White told CBS Local. "It felt a little safer."
As compared to an epidural, using laughing gas has less potential side effects, is non-invasive, and can be administered at a moment's notice.
"Women in labor who need pain relief should not only have access to invasive methods such as an epidural, which may have considerable side effects, but other means of pain relief as well," according to a 2012 study on the gas. "Futhermore, even in hospitals with full-time obstetric anaesthesia coverage no one may be available to give an epidural, and in primary care, invasive methods for pain relief are not available at all."
Overseas, laughing gas has been approved for use during labor since the 1930s.
Kerry Dixon, a certified nurse midwife who has been delivering babies for 20 years, and has used the laughing gas for laboring mothers in New Zealand, told CBS Local the popularity of laughing gas is growing among patients. She added that the laughing gas helps alleviate mental anxiety to ease physical pain, and poses less health risks for mom and baby than other options (such as an epidural).
"They're also free to move around so they can be on a birthing ball, sitting in a rocking chair, they can be pacing," Dixon told CBS Local. "Other medications we offer in the United States require them to be in bed."
