Viewer Question:
I am trying to find out the real name for
twilight sleep; they used it in 1970 when women were delivering their
babies.
Doctor's Response:
The term "twilight sleep" applied to the
combination of analgesia (pain relief) and amnesia (loss of memory)
that was produced by a mixture of morphine and scopolamine ("scope")
given by a hypodermic injection (an injection under the
skin). The mixture of the two drugs created a state in which the
woman, while responding somewhat to pain, did not remember it after
delivering her baby. Twilight sleep was once in vogue in obstetrics.
Morphine and scopolamine are both venerable drugs that have been
around a long time. Both are also naturally occurring members of the
very large chemical class of compounds called alkaloids:
- Morphine: The name "morphine" was coined in 1805 by the
German pharmacist Adolf Serturner -- "morphine" refers to
Morpheus, the mythologic god of dreams -- to designate the main
alkaloid contained in opium. Opium, of course, comes from a plant:
the poppy. Morphine is a powerful narcotic agent with strong
analgesic action and other significant effects on the central nervous
system. It is dangerously addicting.
- Scopolamine: Scopolamine was introduced in 1902 and used
up until the 1960s. The name comes from that of the 18th-century Italian naturalist Giovanni Scopoli. Together with
atropine, scopolamine is a component of belladonna which comes from a
plant called "deadly nightshade," once used as a means of poisoning
ones enemy. When scopolamine is given in lower (non-poisonous) doses,
it causes drowsiness, amnesia, and euphoria (a "high") and was thus
used as a preanesthetic agent.
Combined with morphine, scopolamine 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 who was difficult to resusitate, to
get breathing normally.
Twilight sleep has, therefore, fallen entirely out of favor and is
now merely a chapter in the past history of obstetrics.
Last Editorial Review: 1/9/2003
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