Twilight sleep
Scopolamine was introduced in 1902. The name comes from the 18th-century Italian naturalist Giovanni Scopoli. Scopolamine is, together with atropine, a component of belladonna which comes from a plant called “deadly nightshade,” once used as a means of poisoning. When scopolamine is given in lower (non-poisonous) doses, it causes drowsiness and amnesia.
Scopolamine + morphine provided childbirth without pain (or without the memory of pain), once a much sought-after objective. However, there were serious problems with twilight sleep. It completely removed the mother from the birth experience and it gravely depressed the baby’s central nervous system. This sometimes made for a drowsy depressed baby with poor breathing capacity. Twilight sleep therefore has fallen entirely out of favor and is now a chapter in the history of obstetrics.
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