twilight sleep

American  

noun

Medicine/Medical.

1. a state of semiconsciousness, usually produced by hypodermic injections of scopolamine and morphine, used chiefly to effect relatively painless childbirth.

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twilight sleep British  

noun

1. med a state of partial anaesthesia in which the patient retains a slight degree of consciousness

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Etymology

Origin of twilight sleep

First recorded in 1910–15

Example Sentences

Even though she was the mother to nine children, she had given birth unconsciously to my mother and her siblings during the era of twilight sleep.

From Slate • Mar. 9, 2021

"It is no longer considered smart talk at the bridge table to discuss twilight sleep or painless labor," the doctors* say in Psychosomatic Medicine.

From Time Magazine Archive

Indignantly recalled was the fact that U. S. mothers first heard of twilight sleep through the enterprise of McClwe's Magazine in June 1914.*

From Time Magazine Archive

In Honolulu, pearl fishermen made plans to dope stubborn oysters into yielding up their precious pearls, by a drug said by its sponsor to resemble that used by obstetricians in inducing "twilight sleep."

From Time Magazine Archive

I did not want to lose that twilight sleep, with its odors and sounds and whispered flow of music.

From "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok