Are there any long term effects to the mother that has had the twilight sleep along with the baby?

Answer 1

I experienced "Twilight Sleep" with my firstborn son. I was affected then and the affects remain to this day. My son was affected via seizures/convulsions/numerous hospitalizations, etc. My birthing experience was in a U.S. Army Hospital, Madigan Hospital, in Tacoma WA. My body was bruised badly from thrashing about on the "labor table". I had the "cocktail" of Scopolamine and Morphine for 23 hours. Not only did I have NO memory of the birth of my firstborn son, but my son wasn't given to me for 4+ days. Each day I would ask the nurses for my baby and was told, "Your baby isn't ready yet. Your baby still needs to be resuscitated everyday. This was my first child. To me, this was normal. Others in the same birthing ward as me didn't get their babies right away. The staff made me believe that everything that was happening was normal. I was sent home with a severely damaged baby. My son was "DAMAGED AT BIRTH". Our son had seizures several times each week. Our precious son was medicated with Phenobarbitol, a narcotic, 5 to 6 times per day for 5+ years. Being "medicated" was normal for our son. Being medicated became his NORM.Both my son and I were highly medicated during my labor and delivery. We became regulars at Dr. Zarling's office (noted Neurologist in MN) as well as other specialists. We were given no answers. We were not provided with a National Announcement about the BAN of Twilight Sleep. All doctors said the same, "Your son's central nervous system was damaged at birth - during birth - and during labor. I've researched and will continue to research this National Tragedy that was never announced to the nation. Prisons are bulging with criminals, many of whom have no understanding about what makes them "Tick" and what makes them "Different". Our nation does not want to face this huge injustice that has impacted thousands!

The use of morphine for women in labour is now avoided since it suppresses foetal respiration, as the above demonstrates. It would be perfectly acceptable, however, to give scopolamine (hyoscine) with pethidine instead or to give it in conjunction with epidural anaesthesia to prevent any memory of the event from being formed. The fact that twilight sleep was used for so long (roughly 1890s to 1970s) shows that it was, in fact, very popular at the time. It was certainly used at my local hospital in the 1960s and I never heard anyone complain about it. As one obstetrician put it in 1952, "My patients wan to have babies, they just don't want to be there at the time".