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

The procedure may be used by any competent physician anywhere, under any conditions; is much preferable to the nitrous oxide or the "twilight sleep" technique.

From Time Magazine Archive

They call it twilight sleep and a woman don’t feel a thing when the kid comes.

From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith