Painless Childbirth
Nonfiction work
By: Henry Smith Williams
Date: 1914
Source: Williams, Henry Smith. Painless Childbirth. New York: Goodhue, 1914, 10, 14, 18, 19–20, 36, 43, 90–91.
About the Author: Henry Smith Williams (1863–1943), a physician and pathologist, was one of America's foremost advocates of the so-called new "Twilight Sleep" method for inducing painless childbirth in women.
Introduction
The pain of childbirth has been something that women, and women alone, have always had to endure. Moreover, childbirth induces a particular type of pain that is not easily treated. Throughout labor, the woman must remain conscious in order to push, hold back, or engage in whatever other actions the birth process may require. Hence, the nineteenth-century introduction of safe general anesthetic, which rendered the patient totally unconscious, was really not an option with...
[The entire page is 1736 words long]
1910's Medicine and Health Primary Sources
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