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Twilight Sleep: A Historical Look at Medicine and Women’s Reproductive Health

by Sophia Smith

Magazine Cover of the Ladies World with an image of a white woman and child and the text Containing the New Gospel of Hope for Women, The Twilight Sleep
Cover of The Ladies World, August 1914.

Twilight sleep (English translation of the German word Dämmerschlaf)[1][2] is an amnesic state characterized by insensitivity to pain without loss of consciousness, induced by an injection of morphine and scopolamine, with the purpose of pain management during childbirth.[3] The obstetric method originated in Germany and gained large popularity in New York City in the early 20th century.[4] (via Wikipedia)

“A Twilight Sleep Talk,” Twilight Sleep Mothers, The Ladies’ World, February 1915
“Twilight Sleep Triumphs in America,” Van. Bueren Thorne, The Ladies’ World, November 1914
“The New Birth or The Twilight Sleep: The doctors describe what it is and a mother tells her experience,” The Ladies’ World, August 1914
Photos of several issues of The Ladies’ World, featuring articles about Twilight Sleep from 1914 and 1915

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