In 2021 the British royal family welcomed babies like it hadn’t in a long time. Zara Tindall, Princess Anne’s daughter, gave birth to a baby boy in March; Princess Eugenie welcomed August Philip in February; Meghan Markle and Prince Harry welcomed baby Lilibet Diana; and, a couple months later, Queen Elizabeth received her 12th great-grandchild when Princess Beatrice welcomed her first child this fall. Today, the late Queen Elizabeth would’ve been the proud great-grandmother of 13 royal kids.
This royal-baby craze has unveiled some traditions and practices royal women have followed or broken, over time. However, there’s one that is rarely talked about that even Queen Elizabeth followed, and Princess Diana was completely against. It’s called twilight sleep, and thank goodness it’s over since it’s actually quite brutal and dangerous.
Twilight sleep, originally called Dammerschlaf, was a german childbirth practice from the early twentieth century created by the obstetricians Bernhardt Kronig and Karl Gauss in 1906. This practice consisted of administering a combination of scopolamine and morphine to induce a slumbering state on women so they would be asleep during childbirth and avoid pain.
Women would go to sleep and wake up with no recollection whatsoever of giving birth. The baby would be taken out with forceps, a dangerous practice as well. The idea of pain-free childbirth had always been a dream, and for some time before Kronig and Gauss’s “invention”, women would take basically anything that would take out the pain.
Queen Victoria was known to take anesthesia, making it a popular practice among women in the 1850s. For seven pregnancies, doctors had advised her not to take any drug since it would slow down the labor process. However, for her eighth pregnancy she insisted on easing the pain, and was allowed to inhale chloroform from a handkerchief during the birth. It was so easy for her that it soon became quite popular to the point that the procedure was known as “chloroform à la Reine.”
The idea of being unconscious during childbirth became so popular that when Kronig and Gauss published their results, women would even pay to travel to Germany and give birth at their clinic. However, by 1915, the real issues of twilight sleep became more public.
For instance, doctors noted that many women would show a slower pulse, a decrease in their breathing, and some cases, even delirium. Not only that but also babies would also be highly affected by this drug combo. It was soon discovered that the drugs would reach the placenta and affect their central nervous system. Actually, the image we all have about doctors spanking babies to make them cry was born from this practice since it became a way to revive these babies that were born in a nearly comatose state.
Anyways, the practice of twilight sleep soon disappeared also because a slight modification in the dose of morphine and scopolamine would be lethal. However, it became a huge milestone in the usage of anesthesia in obstetrics procedures.
It’s believed that Queen Elizabeth used twilight sleep for her three first births and decided to skip the procedure for the birth of Prince Edward. By this time, she also changed the protocol and became the first royal to give birth in the presence of her husband, Prince Philip. Now, the question is, if twilight sleep stopped being recommended even before she was born, why did went for it?
The thing is that although rare, twilight sleep was still a bit common, especially amongst wealthy women who could afford to have the perfect conditions around them to give birth. It was still considered a risky and dangerous procedure. It’s believed that Prince Andrew was the last royal to be born under those conditions in 1960!
Nowadays, royal childbirth has changed a lot. For instance, Princess Anne was the first royal to give birth at the hospital and not Diana as it’s often thought. However, Diana was truly a trailblazer, and she was the first to have an active royal birth. That is, she was fully awake and had no anesthesia and moreover, she decided to give birth standing up!
Today, most royals have followed their steps and choose to give birth at the hospital rather than at the palaces which are safer for both the baby and the mother. But most importantly, this creepy and brutal practice of twilight birth is no longer made on any single woman in the world.
Read more:
Why Aren’t There Any Pictures of Queen Elizabeth II Pregnant?
The Love Story Of Queen Victoria And Prince Albert In 14 Paintings
