Your health: Laughing gas becoming more popular during labor
Laughing gas for women giving birth
A Minneapolis mom who wanted a natural birth was more than 13 hours into labor when she felt she wasn't going to make it without something to take the edge off the pain. But rather than asking for an epidural or narcotics, she begged for laughing gas, ABC News reports.
“It immediately took my fear away and helped calm me down, though I could still feel the pain,” said Megan Goodoien, who gave birth at the Minnesota Birthing Center in January. “I didn't laugh because the labor was so intense, but everything suddenly felt doable just when I thought I couldn't make it anymore. It's definitely a mental thing.”
Though nitrous oxide has long been used in European countries and Canada, the gas is now making a resurgence in the U.S., according to medical experts.
The gas, once popular in the U.S., was sidelined after the advent of the epidural in the 1930s, midwife Kerry Dixon told ABC News. Epidurals cost more.
“The average cost for a woman opting for nitrous oxide is less than a $100, while an epidural can run up to $3,000 because of extra anesthesia fees,” Dixon said.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved new nitrous oxide equipment for delivery room use in 2011, which could also explain the resurgence, Dixon told ABC News.
Dates when death is more likely
Want to live longer? Maybe you should take extra care on Christmas, New Year's, your birthday and the days you get paid, reports The Washington Post.
On the website of Men's Health magazine, menshealth.com, Markham Heid assembles information from various studies that show days (or times of day) when you are more likely to shuffle off this mortal coil.
Your chances are 25 percent higher of dying on your birthday than the average day of the year, says economist Pablo Peña, author of one of those studies, who says “risky behaviors” involving alcohol, driving and stress are probably the cause.
For similar reasons, chances of dying also jump — though to a lesser degree — on two big holidays, Christmas and New Year's, according to a different study.
“More mystifying: Rates of death for all sorts of common diseases — from cancer to cardiovascular disease — also swell on the first day of the year,” Heid writes.
Several studies, including one from the University of Maryland, find that you are more likely to die soon after you get your paycheck. Again, increases in drinking and driving appear to be the cause.
As for the most lethal hour, Heid doesn't really explain why — but if you're reading this after 11 a.m., you've made it through the most dangerous time of day. Relax.