Are sterile water injections really just injections with water in them?
From my understanding, the water injections being used for labouring women came from their usage with people with renal colic/kidney stones. They are very effective for that condition. The concept behind the development of sterile water injections for pain is ‘gate control theory’. The skin has thousands of receptor sites and nerve cell endings which scan for pain, pressure, touch etc., and transmit that information to the brain very, very quickly. The sensations shoot up the nerves and spinal cord to the brain. The sensations (which are chemical and electrical signals) go through little traffic control stations. The signal boxes in the nerve pathways are ‘manned’ by chemical signalers which let pain, pressure, touch etc., signals through to the brain. The signal boxes in the nerve pathways are called ‘gates’. They are called gates because they choose which signal to let through. When the brain receives the signals, it decides what action to take. The traffic controllers (chemicals) wh
