I absolutely LOVE when you go back and take a look at the history of birth. Sadly this is disturbing, and if twilight sleep was still being used today, I am sure they would still be using this in extreme racist groups!

Hah, the editor/author is named Mankiller.

That picture of the old school nursery just breaks my heart.

A must-read on this topic is the new book "Deliver Me From Pain." I think it's vying for first place right now on my list of the best books to read about birth. I knew a lot of the things she discussed, but not in that level of detail. It's fascinating to see how the development of obstetric anesthesia is absolutely central to the evolution of obstetric practice and hospital maternity care.

This season's Mad Men had an episode showing twilight sleep. Interesting and disturbing.....and my Grandma did remember it (and how awful she was treated under the assumption the wouldn't remember) even though they apparently used it on her. :(

My grandmother speaks very eloquently about her Twilight Sleep births in the 50s, in both the US and in Germany, and how terrible they were. She describes being left completly alone in unmedicated labor, scared and needing support, and then having the doctor put a mask on her and then waking up to a baby, not remembering anything. At least in New York, it was still going on in the early 70s-- my mother in law, who gave birth the first time in 1973, had a natural childbirth until pushing, at which point she was put under and my husband was pulled out with forceps. She remembers nothing of his birth and first few hours, either.

My mom is a labor and delivery nurse, and has been since 1971, and remembers the Twilight Sleep births vividly. She was a huge Lamaze advocate and was part of the movement for natural childbirth in the 70s.

I think it's important to note that the "racism" here is Western (Anglo-Saxon) European vs. Eastern European. The history of the IQ test is also interesting -- one of the flaws in it was that early IQ tests asked questions about Americana -- who won the 19?? World Series; who was the pitcher for the Yankees in 1903, etc. Questions most Americans knew, but few foreigners, who might not have even been in the country at the time, or were working too hard and/or didn't know the language, would not have known. This led to some population/immigration quotas to keep the OBVIOUSLY stupider Eastern Europeans (who were more Johnny-come-lately immigrants than Western Europeans) out of the United States. Sure, it was also used for other races (as we use the term today); but the original use of "race" was much more narrow than it is used now -- and that's the sense it's used in this piece. People would often speak of "the race of the French" or whatever -- it was not used primarily to describe "the races" (black, white, Asian, Native American, Australian Aborigine, and whatever other artificial people groups are currently en vogue) that are commonly used today.

Ditto Rixa on "Deliver Me From Pain" - really goes in-depth on this topic (although I would have loved even more in-depth!)

Interesting because Amy Tuteur just posted on the "science-based medicine" blog about the "roots" of unmedicated birth in similar racial stuff (Grantly Dick-Read apparently talked about the same issues). She was using it to slam natural birth by saying it had a basis in these same racial fears. It would be nice to send her this link, and ask if we can all just agree that people love to control women through reproduction/reproductive processes so we're basically going to find this stuff cropping up anywhere we look.

My mother had Twilight Sleep with all four of her children (1959, 1960, 1963, 1971). She did not like to talk about it. Apparently the forceps did some damage to her, as well, and she went through quite a bit of postpartum pain. She also ended up with a hysterectomy at 40 and a lot of bladder issues in her 60s, and I often wonder if those were connected.

My sister (older) had three c-section pregnancies and just recently had to have a hysterectomy at 49. And I had my unnecesarean. I often wonder if not having any idea of birth to learn about from my mother didn't contribute to both my sister's and mine c/sections--we could not ask my mom for ideas on how to cope with labor, she remembered almost nothing about our births. We got the impression growing up that birth was obviously traumatic and best not talked about in any detail, and for me at least, that definitely contributed to my own fears as my son's birth approached. I literally did not know a single female relation who could tell me a positive birth story.

Twilight sleep was also connected to bottle feeding; my mother told me she was actually given a shot, without consultation, to stop her milk when she was in the hospital. And then taught how to make formula.

Where did you find that picture of me?

My mother and my father's mother (never very close with my maternal grandmother growing up) both had unmedicated hospital births for their two pregnancies. Both of them had the same outlook on labor/delivery "its hard work, its doable work, there's no reason for pain medication". In fact my grandmother used to complain about my need/want for pain relief as a child (I've been a chronic pain sufferer pretty much all my life) by saying "how are you going to get through childbirth? Are you going to let them give you drugs to mess up the baby?" I'd say "no, I'll deal, but I'm not pregnant NOW" (which was never satisfactory for her but my parents thankfully didn't feel the same way). I went through my first labor unmedicated (at home) despite being off all my drugs for my chronic pain in addition to the labor pain and I guess I'm the third generation to have the same outlook "its hard work, its doable work, there's no reason for pain medication", although my thoughts on birth go a lot deeper than that.
This article was interesting to me from another perspective. One of the topics I keep abreast on is population control/overpopulation myth. (check out pop.org if you are curious) . Nearly every 'developed' nation is below replacement level in fertility/birthrates, most after even counting the first generation immigrant who tend to have larger families. 'Racial suicide' which is better defined as 'cultural suicide' is currently happening in almost every developed nation. I don't really have anywhere to go with that point, the article just reminded me of it (and I've already sounded off on the topic in my own blog http://tigaseren.blogspot.com/2008/06/cultural-suicide.html ) and thought it was interesting.

Wow, this post and all the comments are fascinating. I liked that Kathy pointed out that the "racism" was toward other European groups. Your posts are always so thought-provoking!

My grandmother was also subject to twilight sleep. The birth of her first child resulted in a stillbirth - she has no idea what happened, and I've always been convinced it was the result of the sleep/ forceps. Twilight sleep was dangerous, not only a violation.

Gahhh, every time I read about twilight sleep it gives me chills. It's like something too horrible to imagine actually happening...but it DID happen. We may still have a long ways to go, but at least we have come far from THAT!

I am the 9th of 9 children, and my mom had mostly unmedicated births also (all of them at various military hospitals), though she does remember having "that trilene gas" once or twice.
But she swears she was NOT knocked out because she "wanted to be awake when her babies were born."
I've seen her as a hospital patient - she can be a real pain - so I'm sure she was back then, too.
The docs were probably just thinking, "Oh, God, give her what she wants and get her the hell out of here."

My mother-in-law was a Twilight Sleep patient in 1980! Yep! 1980. The doctor also manually extracted the placenta, before it had completely detached. She remembers this clearly.

I see that you've finally acknowledged what I pointed out years ago. Natural childbirth has its origins in the racist, sexist beliefs of Grantly Dick-Read. He made up the idea that "primitive" women have no pain in childbirth because he thought it would convince gullible white women to have more children.

He was right about one thing. Natural childbirth has remained confined to Western, white, relatively well off women and is rejected by most of the world. It's rather ironic that women who claimed to be feminists are still perpetuating racist and sexist lies about childbirth.

I find it interesting that you try to blame obstetricians, the people who opposed Grantly Dick-Read, for trying to control women's bodies. What is the philosophy of "natural" childbirth in its present incarnation but an attempt to tell women what kind of birth is "normal" and what interventions they should and should not have, and how much pain they should or should not feel?

Grantly Dick-Read's intellectual heirs are "natural" childbirth advocates, not obstetricians. How you can justify belief in a philosophy that was a racist and sexist lie?

Amy, you can take a look at my above comment where I mentioned your post. Eugenics was a big thing the early 20th century. That lots people did then, and still do now on a (sometimes) subtler level, want the "right" kind of women to make the "right" kind of babies should be no surprise if we just look at the history. You can paint a lot of people with the eugenics brush - the anti-choice people have done a lot of work on Margaret Sanger, but it doesn't mean that the modern reproductive rights movement is trying to abort all non-white babies. I think it's important to always be mindful of racist/sexist historical connotations and flawed arguments, and be actively trying to eliminate them from our thinking and acknowledge them where appropriate. But if we tried to rule out arguments about aspects of women's reproduction by removing the ones that have had some past in racist or sexist thought, we'd end up with no arguments at all.

What's amusing about this to me (although I totally understand the history behind it) is that Shafer and I feel (on a personal/social level, not a racial level) that natural childbirth is necessary (or, at least, extraordinarily important) in order to make certain that our children have the best start to be some of the best people. We think the pain (or work, at least) is necessary and beneficial for the best entrance to the world, honestly.

"Artificial people groups" I think that phrase is referencing the fact that any people grouping we use - French, white/black, Jewish, etc - is created rather than intrinsic. In other words, people are people. You can group them up in many ways, but however you choose to divide them up is no more than your own choice. There is no inherent, inbred, intrinsic division between people. Our groupings are created in whatever way is currently in fashion; therefore, the way we classify people can easily change over time.

Dang it all, who said "Beetlejuice"?!

the "new school" nurseries break my heart, too.

dou-la-la - ROFL!!

maybe if we say it 3 times the bogeyman will go away again?

Amy:

Can you please provide some more information regarding your idea that natural childbirth has recent origins (specifically, as you say, by G-R)? Can you please explain how your idea correlates with the fact that many (most, I would say) other cultures have a more community-oriented and supportive view of childbirth, sharing stories and assisting each other through pregnancy, labor, delivery, and child-rearing? Can you please explain what you mean by "women who claim to be feminists...still perpetuating racist and sexist lies about childbirth"? I'm sorry, but I don't actually know where the basis is for any of your information, so it's hard to discuss the topic with you.

Then again, you aren't actually known for using data appropriately, so perhaps this is from another "study" that you've read and misinterpreted?

I haven't seen anyone here demanding that women birth certain ways. I haven't seen anyone attempt to control the pregnancy or birth of anyone else. I have, however, seen a lot of frustration from women unable to make choices through lies, threats, and outright force - generally from OBs and hospitals. I have seen mothers have their children taken away, at least for short periods of time, because they refused to consent to actions being *demanded* of them, contrary to all sense, science, and law. The natural childbirth community is there to educate women on choices, choices they are not being given in other situations. It IS there to allow women to choose for themselves what is the best course - even if it's one we disagree with. It's not there to threaten, to make ad hominem attacks, to deceive, or to separate. It is there to provide support, love, trust, and honesty, and OBs can be involved in that as well, if they choose.

Congratulations Jill, the famous Amy Teuter found your blog and left a completely nonsensical comment as usual...you've officially arrived :-)

Thanks for the post. Interestingly, my impression of the natural birth community is one that cares about *all* women and babies, and choice for *all* women. I've heard frustration that women aren't told the risks of interventions, not frustration when women are educated an make those choices anyhow. And anytime someone criticizes someone else's choices, someone else always calls them on it, IME...in a similar spirit to your blog entry on Thanksgiving Day.

So natural birth is confined to upper class white women? Really? Maybe in America, but the world over I think most women giving natural birth are poor and have no health care in the traditional western sense...or live in countries with nationalized health care (based on experience of a friend from Romania, who told me to appreciate that epidural is an option here b/c it's not over there). Where do those stats come from anyhow? Please clarify. And you think natural birth convinces white women birth is painless? Really? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahah. Yeah. Painless. Uh huh. I'm actually speechless at that one....

"Artificial people groups" -- sorry, I was typing quickly and didn't fully elucidate. Artificially assigning people to set groups based on outward characteristics, such as race. When you look at the human race as a single group, instead of artificially dividing it up into various groups, a different picture emerges. At least it does to me. Rather than rigid lines keeping us apart, there is a fluid morphing from one to another. There are really no characteristics that are stereotypical of one race or another that are not found in most/all races... just in different quantities or percentages. One of my blond-haired blue-eyed friends has some Native American in her maternal past, and she inherited the high cheekbones and almond eyes. She tells the story of going to a Japanese sushi restaurant and seeing her double (only in different color -- black hair and eyes, with bronze skin). I have big lips, thanks to my dad, which is stereotypically assigned to the African "race," although my dad was 100% Dutch. My mom and many people on my maternal side have curly hair -- she was actually asked as a teenager if she was black due to her hair, although her skin is definitely white. I once saw a picture of my mom's aunt or great-aunt when she was elderly, and I thought, "Who is this black woman, and why is there a picture of her in my Grandmother's things?" But she wasn't black; I thought perhaps she or one of her parents was mixed-race who had "passed" as white, but she wasn't -- we've been able to trace enough ancestry to make that seem impossible. But the picture of her when she was 80 -- the shape of her face and her facial characteristics made me think she was black, because they were either stereotypically "black" or they reminded me of other elderly black women I had known. A geneticist friend of mine told me that they did a genetics test in England, where they were trying to track the Y-chromosome (passed only from father to son), and one man's Y chromosome was African, but he was a WASP -- "white anglo-saxon protestant"! That's interesting. So, they sent a DNA test to all the men with the same last name as this person (since the Y chromosome, like the last name, was passed down from father to son), and sure enough, all the men with that same last name likewise had the same "African" DNA, but looked as English as anybody else. [Probably, an African came over, perhaps as a slave, perhaps even earlier, like in the Roman conquest; and was either left behind or stayed behind, and fathered at least one son. His DNA has survived.] Things like that. We just need to see people as people, and not as some stereotypical group, that's all. The human race, singular; not races of humans, as if we were all different species or something.

"You can paint a lot of people with the eugenics brush - the anti-choice people have done a lot of work on Margaret Sanger, but it doesn't mean that the modern reproductive rights movement is trying to abort all non-white babies."

Margaret Sanger did not fabricate birth control. She proposed that birth control be used for immoral means. Grantly Dick-Read fabricated "natural" childbirth. It has no basis in science.

The main point of my comment, however, was to point out the claims that I made about Grantly Dick-Read years ago have been true all along. The same goes for all my other empirical claims. Jill is finally acknowledging them, and now has to find a reason to dismiss the truth.

I don't make up my scientific claims about "natural" childbirth and homebirth; they are true and they must be addressed if "natural" childbirth advocates intend to be taken seriously.