500 Years of Childbirth History

1500s: Mothers-to-be prepared their wills when they learned they were pregnant. Europan women, attended by midwives and female family members, gave birth in horseshoe-shaped chairs.

1591: In Scotland, Eufame Maclayne was burned at the stake for asking for pain relief during delivery of twins.

Mid-1700s: Forceps are introduced to help deliver the baby safely during a stalled during a stalled labor.

1853: Chloroform gained popularity after Queen Victoria used the anesthetic during her eight delivey.

1910s: Twilight sleep, a treatment involving scopolamine and morphine, made women forget the labor experience altogether.

1915: The growing feminist movement championed pain management during childbirth.

1920s: Hospital births became more common, icluding the systematic use of forceps, episiotomy and anesthesia, as advocated by Dr. Joseph DeLee.

1942: Dr. Grantly Dick-Read proclaimed the benefits of "natural childbirth, without anesthesia or tools," in his bestseller "Childbirth Without Fear"

1960s: Twilight sleep lost popularity as news of its side effects spread. These side effects included hallucination and a temporary impairment of the baby's ability to breathe.

1970s: Epidurals gained poularity, along with techniques like hypnosis, breath work and water birth. Fathers were usually allowed to stay with their partners through labor and delivery.

1980s: Women advocated for alternatives to giving birth in a hospital, including home births and birthing centers.

2000s: C-sections accounted for about a third of deliveries. By the early 2000s, over half of all women who gave birth vaginally received an epidural or spinal block.

Today: Women have more childbirth options than ever, including home birth, vaginal birth after C-section, "gentle C-section" and epidural.