Childbirth practices have changed dramatically over the centuries. From female-led home births to highly medicalized hospital deliveries and the modern-day emphasis on choice, the history of childbirth reflects a long journey toward today's more personalized labor and birth care.
Here are some highlights from the past 500 years.
1500s. Mothers-to-be prepared their wills when they learned they were pregnant. European women, attended by midwives and female family members, gave birth in horseshoe-shaped chairs.
1591. In Scotland, Eufame Maclayne was burned at the stake for asking for pain relief during her delivery of twins.
1600s. According to the American College of Nurse Midwives and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), "birth was a social event of a female ritual" in colonial white America. Midwives were employed and given housing and status.
1700s. Dr. William Shippen of Philadelphia became the first male doctor to practice obstetrics in the U.S.
1800s. Chloroform gained popularity after Queen Victoria used the anesthetic during her eighth delivery. While white male doctors became increasingly involved in childbirth, midwives continued to attend births, especially in rural areas. "In the Southern states, Black midwives, sometimes called ‘granny' midwives, attended up to 75% of births until the 1940s," according to Oregon Health Science University's Center for Women's Health.
1906. Twilight sleep, a treatment involving scopolamine (for amnesia) and morphine (for pain), made women forget the labor experience altogether. It was used only several years before it fell from favor as news of its side effects spread. These side effects included hallucination and a temporary impairment of the baby's ability to breathe.
1914. Dr. Ferdinand Lamaze introduced his Lamaze childbirth technique based on breathing and relaxation techniques to cope with labor pain. At about the same time, the growing feminist movement championed pain management during childbirth.
1920s. Hospital birth became more common, including the systematic use of forceps, episiotomy, and anesthesia as advocated by Dr. Joseph DeLee.
1940s. The natural childbirth movement began. Dr. Grantly Dick-Read proclaimed the benefits of "natural childbirth, without anesthesia or tools," in his bestseller "Childbirth Without Fear" (published in England in 1933 and in the U.S. in 1944).
1950s. Childbirth classes were introduced as natural childbirth gained momentum.
1970s. Techniques like hypnosis, breath work, and water birth were introduced. Fathers were usually allowed to stay with their partners through labor and delivery.
1980s. Epidurals gained popularity, and episiotomies decreased. Women advocated for alternatives to giving birth in a hospital, including home births and birth centers. Hospital stays were shortened.
1990s. Fetal monitoring became routine during labor.
2000s. C-sections accounted for about a third of deliveries. By the early 2000s, over half of all women who gave birth vaginally received an epidural or spinal block.
Today. Women have more childbirth options than ever, including having a home birth, an epidural, an induction, a vaginal birth after C-section, and sometimes even a "gentle C-section."
Wondering what to expect when it's go-time and you're in labor? Track labor symptoms and contractions with the What to Expect app.
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