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[[File:boston-sunday-post-Mar-06-1915-p-15a.jpg|thumbnail|left|250px|This article from the Boston Sunday Post shows how Twilight Sleep began to become popular in the United States.]]
As fields of inquiry, obstetrics and gynecology have a relatively short history. While obstetrics and gynecology have been practiced since time immemorial, their shift from women-centered knowledge and common sense practices to science began in the 19th century. Before the 19th century, much of the knowledge of childbirth and delivery was passed through women, kin, and midwives. As medicine became an organized profession in the 19th century, much of its early history revolved around consolidating that knowledge into medical men’s hands.<ref>Pablo Mitchell, ''Coyote Nation: Sexuality, Race, and Conquest in Modernizing New Mexico, 1880-1920'' (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2005), p. 122-148.</ref>
Twilight Sleep was the product of two German physicians--Dr. Bernhardt Kronig and Dr. Karl Gauss. They developed the procedure in 1906 to alleviate the pain of childbirth. Their development did not occur in a vacuum. Twilight sleep "contributed to changing childbirth from an at home process to a hospital procedure and increased the use of anesthetics in obstetrics," and it was developed several years after Dr. Richard von Steinbüchel suggested the use of scopolamine as an anesthetic for childbirth.<ref>Jessica Pollesche, "Twilight Sleep," The Embryo Project, 2018 [https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/twilight-sleep].</ref>
[[File:3zch8l8unsiy.jpg|thumbnail|left|250px|This image shows how women would be prepared for Twilight birth. Eyes were covered and arms were restrained in order for physicians to maintain control.]]Morphine, a derivative of opium, was a well-known, powerful, (and addictive) narcotic with analgesic properties, and scopolamine was a "preanesthetic agent" that produced drowsiness, amnesia, and euphoria.<ref>William C. Shiel, Jr. "What is Twilight Sleep in Obstetrics?" MedicineNet, 2018 [https://www.medicinenet.com/twilight_sleep_in_obstetrics/ask.htm].</ref> As medicine became a more organized and professional field, women increasingly asked for anesthetics during the childbirth process. Physicians were responding to these demands. When Dr. von Steinbüchel suggested the use of scopolamine (in conjunction with morphine) he wasn't hoping to render women unconscious, just to reduce pain. When the two drugs were injected, though, the combination of the two produced a result where women had no memory of pain. Drs. Kronig and Gauss reviited Dr. von Steinbüchel's formula and adjusted the dosage to avoid some of the negative--and potentially fatal--side effects, specifically: slow pulse and decreased respiration.<ref>Pollesche.</ref> Kronig and Gauss posited that the use of this drug minimized complications and allowed mothers to recovery more quickly. While their initial findings were not well-received, they continued their research and soon started offering the procedure to some of Germany's wealthiest women.
Twilight Sleep was popular because it was thought to be a modern medical intervention, but also because it offered the potential for "painless" childbirth. However, the process was not ''actually'' painless. Women just had no memory of the pain. Their bodies still responded to pain and they still screamed, thrashed, and moved even while in a semi-zombie state. Pregnant women undergoing Twilight Sleep were thus restrained and placed in dark rooms while delivering.
This practice was limited to Germany for its first few years. In 1912, an American woman named Cecil Stewart went to Germany to deliver her child this way. She described it as a wonderful experience, and soon, other women became interested. Journalist for women's magazines read up on the procedure, sent pregnant women in to relay the process, and interviewed hospital staff.
Twilight Sleep soon became widely available in the US in 1914. However, its rise was short-lived. American physicians were not as well-versed in the proper dosages as more women demanded the procedure than physicians and nurses who were trained the administer them. In late 1915, Francis Carmody, a leading advocate for Twilight Sleep in the US, died while during Twilight Sleep--though others would later say the death was unrelated to the procedure itself.
Though Twilight Sleep fell in popularity, it was still available. In 1958, however, an article called "Cruelty in Maternity Wards" by ''Ladies Home Journal'' exposed some of the violence that was occurring in modern American delivery rooms. The author described the leather restraints and screaming that the women under the influence had no memory of. Some have described this as an important moment in the history of childbirth, as it was, after this encouraged for fathers to be present at deliveries where they had been absent before. This was also true for the women. When they were administered this particular drug cocktail, they, too, were absent from the childbirth experience.
This image of restrained women during childbirth--a natural process--especially at the hands of predominantly male physicians did not bode well with the forthcoming Women's Rights Movement. Subsequent pharmaceutical innovations have found a way to minimize the pain of childbirth while also allowing women to be present to welcome the birth of their new child.
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