I remember being taught to 'chin' as a student nurse in the early 1960s in Wellington (NZ) I'd forgotten that until you mentioned it, Joan. I believe I experienced it with my first baby in 1966. Not nice! It was still being done by some GPs in the 1970s basically the hand was pushed under the baby's chin in the woman's anal area and pressure was applied to aid in extending the head once the head was crowning.
My Master's thesis was on maternity in the 1950s and '60s and the older midwives I interviewed remembered both ether and chloroform being used in the early 1950s for second stage although 'chloroform was on its way out' - ? due to potential liver damage. Omnopn and scopolamine or Morphine and scopolamine and also 'nembutal' which I think may have been a barbiturate? were used for twilight sleep - (which my mother also had for her first baby) but even without twilight sleep inhalational anaesthesia using the Murphy's mask and then the Nitrous oxide and air (later replaced with Oxygen) were commonly used in 2nd stage. - Jane Stojanovic
-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for discussion on midwifery and reproductive health research. on behalf of Joan Skinner
Sent: Wed 13/02/2008 3:01 p.m.
To: [log in to unmask]
Cc:
Subject: Re: Fwd: birth in 1949
Well do any of you remember the process of 'chinning' I used to work
with a couple of old GPs who had worked in the days of the mask on the
face and who liked to 'chin' the baby. They said it protected the
perineum!! This was also how they got the baby out when the woman was
unconscious. Joan Skinner.
-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for discussion on midwifery and reproductive health
research. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Marilyn Foureur
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 2:43 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Fwd: birth in 1949
Dear Megan
I was born in South Australia in 1948 and my mother similarly has no
memory of my actual birth- a mask was placed over her face and drops of
some substance put onto it and she became unconscious waking sometime
later to be told she had a baby girl. No forceps were used that she was
aware of and there were no marks on my face or head suggesting forceps
were used - physiologically speaking the fetal ejection reflex that is
initiated when the head is low enough, should be powerful enough to
expel the baby and the placenta without the extra pushing effort of the
mother.
regards Maralyn
Martha Livingston wrote:
> Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:06:21 -0500
> To: Megan Heatherington <[log in to unmask]>
> From: Martha Livingston <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: birth in 1949
> Cc:
> Bcc:
> X-Attachments:
> I'm not at all sure chloroform was still being used in 1949, but it
> could well have been 'twilight sleep,' too: scopolamine (sometimes
> known as 'truth serum,') so that your mom has no recollection of the
> birth but was not actually anesthetized and likely behaved in a manner
> she would not have been pleased to hear about later on. Very popular
> in my country starting in the nineteen-teens, and actually still in
> use here at least into the 1970s in some parts. But devised in Europe
> by a doc who begged the medical establishment in 1936 to stop using
> it, as he thought by then that he had created a monster.
>
> Peace,
>
> Martha
>
>
> My mother has no recollection of the birth of her first daughter - in
> 1949 - all she could remember was that once the contractions became
> intense she was asked to inhale presumably chloroform. She woke some
> time later to be told she had given birth to a girl, and she could see
> her later once everyone was cleaned up! She is certain that forceps
> were not used.
>
> I often try to calm women who become very anxious during the second
> stage by encouraging them that their body will do the work for them.
> When they are fearful that pushing is too painful and they begin to
> resist the sensation I work with them to breathe/blow the pain away
> instead. Inevitably their body takes over and births the baby.
>
> Perhaps there is historical information available, with the common use
> of ether and chloroform?
>
> Regards,
> Megan Heatherington.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Hunter, Billie <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 4:29 AM
>
> Dear list members
>
> I have had the following query from a friend who is a trainee
> antenatal teacher:
>
> Could you point me in the direction of evidence regarding the uterus'
> ability to expel the baby without the mother pushing at all ( e.g. if
> the woman was unconscious)?
>
> This is not really my field - can anyone else suggest any relevant
> sources of information?
>
> many thanks
> Billie
>
> Billie Hunter
> Professor of Midwifery
> Institute for Health Research
> School of Health Science
> Floor 2 Vivian Tower
> Swansea University
> Swansea SA2 8PP
>
> Phone: + 44 (0)1792 518584
> Fax: +44 (0) 1792 295487
>
>
> --
>
> Martha Livingston, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor of Health and Society
> SUNY College at Old Westbury
> Box 210
> Old Westbury, New York 11568-0210
> (516) 876-2748
>
>
> --
>
> Martha Livingston, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor of Health and Society
> SUNY College at Old Westbury
> Box 210
> Old Westbury, New York 11568-0210
> (516) 876-2748
--
Professor Maralyn Foureur
Professor of Midwifery
Centre for Midwifery, Child and Family Health, Faculty of Nursing,
Midwifery & Health
University of Technology, Sydney
T: 9514 4834
F: 9514 4835
M: 0448 448 735
A: PO Box 123, Broadway NSW 2007
www.nmh.uts.edu.au
--
UTS CRICOS Provider Code: 00099F
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