A history of pain relief during childbirth

Abstract

Women's quest to relieve the pain of childbirth is timeless. A few religious leaders opposed the relief of childbirth pain, but most clergy did not, nor did lay people. In 1847, Fanny Longfellow, the poet's wife, received ether to aid in delivery. In 1853, Queen Victoria chose chloroform to relieve labor pain during the birth of Prince Leopold, ending any moral opposition to pain relief during childbirth. In 1956, Pope Pius XII approved pain relief during childbirth. US and British movements advanced obstetric anesthesia from the early 1900s to the present. Women lobbied to assure pain relief during labor and sought greater control over delivery. The medical establishment haltingly increased anesthetic availability. In 1914, some US women organized the National Twilight Sleep Association, bringing this popular European technique to the US. But when one of its prominent advocates died during childbirth in 1915 while using twilight sleep, the Association came to an end. Some use of twilight sleep persisted in the US until the 1960s. In the 1920s, one in two hundred British women died during childbirth. In 1928, British women formed the National Birthday Trust Fund to decrease mortality, and make modern pain relief during childbirth available.