Question:
We were in a birth center that offered no drugs, and he was posterior, so I had a lot of back pain. The midwife suggested an option I hadn't heard of beforehand... to inject sterile water under the skin of my lower back. This is supposed to "confuse" the pain receptors, and somehow make the pain less intense.

At the time, I declined, mostly because I got occasional relief from my SO rubbing tennis balls on my back, and I figured he wouldn't be able to do that after the injections. Instead, I just started to push and eliminate the pain by getting the kid out.

How effective is the "injecting sterile water" method? Would it have helped? How exactly does it work?

Answer:

Baby 1 was posterior until about 5 hours before he was born. Baby 2 had been floating in the swimming pool as a method of pain relief up until then, but it has only been moderately effective in relieving the pain.

When she got out of the pool at about 9:30 PM, she complained about her lower back hurting whenever she had a contraction. I suggested that she do pelvic rocks. After poo-pooing the suggestion a few minutes, she got down on her hands and knees and started doing them. A couple of minutes later, she let out a very audible "Wow!" I asked "what." She stood up and said that was much better. The baby had turned anterior during the rocks and the pain vanished almost instantaneously.

So that is our experience. Pelvic rocks, by rotating the baby from posterior to anterior, can be exceptionally effective in relieving back pain. The rest of baby 2's labor was relatively pain free.

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