Practice Guidelines for Obstetric Anesthesia

The pain of childbirth is one of the most severe types of pain a woman will endure in her lifetime. Conflicting ideas about pain relief from childbirth pain were rooted in the bible and continued throughout the middle ages and Renaissance. “In Sorrow thou shalt bring forth children” (Genesis 3:16). Fifteenth century midwives were burned at the stake for offering pain relief during labor. The modern era of anesthetics began in 1847 when James Young Simpson, a Scottish obstetrician, administered chloroform to a woman during childbirth. In 1853, Queen Victoria asked John Snow to administer chloroform for the delivery of her eighth child, Prince Leopold. Obstetric anesthesia had the Royal blessing (“chloroform à la reine”), and medical and religious acceptance soon followed.