After delivering a baby, pain from damaged tissues around the birth canal can be reduced by administering the painkiller diclofenac rectally, according to a new study.

Dr. Jodie M. Dodd and colleagues from the University of Adelaide, Australia, conducted the study, which involved 133 women with a perineal tear or episiotomy after giving birth. The participants were randomly given diclofenac or inactive placebo suppositories.

Treatment packs included two diclofenac or placebo suppositories. The first suppository was inserted once suturing was completed and the second 12 to 24 hours after birth, the team explains in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Women completed questionnaires 24 and 48 hours after delivery to assess their degree of perineal pain.

Compared with women who were given the placebo, those who got diclofenac were 20 percent less likely to experience pain at 24 hours while walking or sitting, and 40 percent less likely to find urinating or a bowel movement painful.

By 48 hours after giving birth, there were no differences between the two groups.

The women who were given diclofenac were more satisfied with their pain relief and there was a “high degree of acceptance for the rectal route of administering analgesia,” the researchers note.

Overall, Dodd’s group concludes that diclofenac suppositories offer a “clear advantage” for the short-term relief of perineal pain after childbirth.

SOURCE: British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, October 2004.