Pregnancy - Sunrise Slumber and Nitrous Oxide : Part 1

The Mother and Her Child
by William S. Sadler, M.D., Lena K. Sadler, M.D.

(Page 10 of 42)

Since the public has already been told so much about obstetric anesthesia, we deem it best to go into the whole subject thoroughly, so that the expectant mothers who read this book will be able to form an intelligent opinion regarding the question, and therefore be in a position to give hearty cooperation to the decision of their physician to employ, or not to employ, any special form of anesthesia or analgesia in their particular case. In order to give the reader a complete understanding of "painless labor," it will be necessary to give attention to that newer and more safe method of obstetric anesthesia called "sunrise slumber." This method of anesthesia consists in the employment of nitrous oxide or "laughing gas," and will be fully considered in this chapter.

Obstetric Fear

In this connection we desire to reiterate and further emphasize some statements made in the preceding chapter concerning the unnatural fear and abnormal dread of childbirth.

We feel that it is very important in connection with this new movement in obstetrics to reduce the woman's pain and suffering to the lowest possible minimum, that the trials of labor should not be overdrawn and the pangs of confinement overestimated. We must not educate the normal woman to look upon labor as a terrible ordeal - something like a major surgical operation - which, since it cannot be escaped, must be endured with the aid of a deep anesthesia.

The facts are that a very small percent of healthy women suffer any considerable degree of severe pain - at least not after the first child. We often observe that judicious mental suggestion on the part of the physician or nurse in the form of encouraging words and supporting assurances tends to exert a marked influence in controlling nervousness and subduing the sufferings of the earlier labor pains.

We must not allow the efforts of medical science to lessen the sufferings of child-bearing, to rob womankind of their natural and commendable courage, endurance, and self-reliance.

We do not mean to perpetuate the old superstition that pain and suffering are the necessary and inevitable accompaniments of child-bearing - that the pangs of labor are a divine sentence pronounced upon womankind - and that, therefore, nothing should be done to lessen the sufferings of confinement. Severe and unnatural pain is not at all necessary to childbirth, and there exists no reason under the sun why women should suffer and endure it, any more than they should suffer the horrors of a very painful surgical operation without an anesthetic.

In this connection, it should be recalled that analgesic drugs have been introduced into obstetric practice only during the last fifty years, while such methods of relieving pain have been used in general surgery for a much longer period. It is now only sixty-nine years since Simpson first employed anesthetic in obstetrics, while six years afterwards Queen Victoria gave her seal of approval to the use of chloroform in labor cases.

Thirty years ago, in speaking of the expectant mothers, Lusk warned us:

As the nervous organization loses in the power of resistance as the result of higher civilization and of artificial refinement, it becomes imperatively necessary for the physician to guard her from the dangers of excessive and too prolonged suffering.

Nitrous Oxide - "Laughing Gas"

Nitrous oxide, or "laughing gas," was first used in labor cases in 1880 by a Russian physician. During the last twenty-five years it has been used off and on by numerous practitioners in connection with confinement, but not until the last few years has this method of relieving labor pain come into prominent notice.

While the "laughing gas" method of obstetric anesthesia did not gain notoriety and publicity from being exploited in magazines and other lay publications, it did get its initial boost in a very unique and unusual manner. A gentleman who manufactured and sold a "laughing gas" and oxygen mixing machine for the use of dentists, insisted that this method of anesthesia should be used in the case of his daughter, who was about to be confined. This patient was kept under this nitrous oxide anesthetic for six hours - came out fine - no accidents or other undesirable complications affecting either mother or child, and therefore another and safe method of reducing the sufferings of childbirth has been fully demonstrated and confirmed, although it had previously been known and used in labor cases to some extent.

Starting from this particular case in 1913, many obstetricians began experimental work with "gas" in labor cases; and, at the time of this writing, it has come to occupy a permanent place in the management of labor, alongside of chloroform, ether, and "twilight sleep."

Analgesia vs. Anesthesia

The reader should understand the difference between analgesia and anesthesia. Anesthesia refers to the condition in which the patient is more or less unconscious - wholly or partially oblivious to what is going on, and, of course, entirely insensible to all pain. Analgesia is a term applied to the loss of pain sensation. The patient may not be wholly or even partially unconscious - merely under the influence of some agent which dulls, deadens, or otherwise destroys the realization of pain. This is the condition aimed at by the proper administration of any form of "twilight sleep," whether by the scopolamine-morphine method, or by the nitrous oxide ("sunrise slumber") method.

Any method of treatment which can more or less destroy the pain of labor without in any way interfering with its progress, and which in no way complicates its course or leaves behind any bad effects on either mother or child, must certainly be hailed with joy by both the patient and the physician. While chloroform has served these purposes fairly well, there have been numerous drawbacks and certain dangers; and it was the knowledge of these limitations in the use of both chloroform and ether, that has led to further experimentation and the development of these newer methods of producing satisfactory analgesia - freedom from pain - without bringing about such a state of profound anesthesia as accompanies the administration of the older methods.

About the Author

Dr. William S. Sadler M.D. was a well-known American psychiatrist and college teacher in the school of medicine at the University of Chicago. For over sixty years he practiced his profession in Chicago, thirty-three years being associated in practice with his wife, Dr Lena Kellogg Sadler. The doctors were pioneers in the research on the mysterious Urantia Papers.