Dämmerschlaf or Twilight Sleep

Most of us are familiar with the German term Götterdämmerung, which is usually translated as 'twilight of the Gods'. It is a translation into German of the Old Norse phrase ragnarøkkr. However, the correct term in Old Norse is  ragnarǫk ('fate of the gods'), from regin ('gods') and rǫk ('fate' or 'judgment'). In Norse mythology ragnarǫk refers to a prophesied war among various beings and gods that ultimately results in the burning, immersion in water, and renewal of the world.

Götterdämmerung is the last in the cycle of four music dramas titled 'Der Ring des Nibelungen' by German composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883). No wonder that Adolf Hitler was a fan of Wagner, because he tried to renew the world too.

Another concept is Dämmerschlaf or 'Twilight Sleep', which became popular in the beginning of the twentieth century[1].

The treatment of choice for childbirth pains during the latter half of the 1800s was chloroform. The anaesthetic qualities of chloroform were first described in 1842. On November 4th, 1847, the Scottish doctor James Young Simpson first used the chloroform as an anesthetic on a pair of friends at a dinner party. This was done purely as entertainment rather than being a medical procedure.

Between about 1865 and 1920, chloroform was used in about 90% of all narcoses performed in the UK, but complications were many. The problem was that chloroform causes depression of the central nervous system (CNS), ultimately producing deep coma, respiratory center depression, and death.

So, the search was on for some safer means of sedation.

Twilight sleep was developed in Germany around 1900. It is an amnesic condition characterized by insensitivity to pain without loss of consciousness, induced by an injection of morphine (from opium) and scopolamine (from the deadly nightshade) in order to relieve the pain of childbirth. This combination, which mimics the Greek nepenthe, induces a semi-narcotic state which produces the experience of childbirth without pain. However, some scientists state that women do feel the – sometimes - excruciating pain, but the drug removes all memory of that pain.

Pain can lead to all sorts of long-term traumatic effects, such as a postpartum depression. In the end, it doesn't really matter if a woman does not feel the pain or simply does not remember the pain she had experienced.

The combination of morphine and scopolamine entered mainstream medical use around 1907, but it also had its drawbacks. Eventually, the use of the drug was discontinued because it also had depressive effects on the central nervous system of the infant. This resulted in a drowsy newborn with poor breathing capacity.

[1] Marx: Historische Entwicklung der Geburtsanästhesie in Anaesthesist - 1987