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The first anaesthetic in childbirth
On 19 January 1847, the Edinburgh obstetrician, James Young *Simpson (1811-1870), delivered the first child born to a mother anaesthetised with chloroform (half a teaspoon on a rag applied to the nose). The child was named Anaesthesia. It was so successful that, within a week, he had given it to 30 mothers. There followed many protests from those who believed that women were intended to 'bring forth children in sorrow', and that the pain of childbirth was retribution for Eve's fall. They were joined by medical objectors who believed that chloroform could cause dangerous side effects such as convulsions and could not be justified in 'ordinary labour'. However, most objections were silenced in 1853, when Queen Victoria's son, Prince Leopold, was delivered under chloroform administered by her physician, John Snow (1813-1858). She described its effect as 'soothing, quieting, and delightful beyond measure'.
However, chloroform remained an analgesic primarily for the rich until attitudes towards the management of labour pain became more egalitarian. Some obstetricians had believed that 'civilised' and 'high-bred' women had lower pain thresholds than savages or poor women. The use of anaesthesia allowed caesarian operations to be considered in cases of obstructed labour rather than used solely as a means of extracting a child from a dead or dying mother. Nevertheless, the mortality remained high as the procedure was generally only performed after the mother had been in labour for some days.
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