Pain Relief in Labor: A Long and Winding Road

Mesmerism
• “I have the idea of magnetizing a
pregnant woman before delivery.
Imagine such a discovery as birth
without pain! Unfortunately Genesis
doesn’t want this.” Dr. Grubert,
Lyons, France, 1836
• 1844, English Mesmerist JP Lynell
provided a week of mesmerism
culminating in painless delivery.
Mesmerism in America
• Dr. William Fahnestock (Lancaster, PA)
practiced “somnambulism”, which was
similar to “animal magnetism” and
“mesmerism”, producing a “stuporous
trance.”
• Reported two deliveries managed without
pain. Mrs. Susan Herr had lost her
eyesight and use of her legs with a
previous painful delivery. Sight, mobility,
and painless labor were all obtained with
“somnambulistic trance” during her next
delivery.
Mesmerism vs. Ether
• Mesmerists attempted hypnotic states for
surgery, but were generally unsuccessful.
• Famous British surgeon Sir Robert Liston
proclaimed “This Yankee dodge (ether),
gentlemen, beats mesmerism hollow!”
• Never-the-less, for the last 160 years,
hypnotic states have successfully achieved
labor pain relief.
Dr. August Bier
• University of Berlin, 1898
• Pinnacle of Western Medicine in
1890s
• He and an assistant (Dr. Henselbach)
hammered spinal needles into each
other backs, injected cocaine.
• Reported first spinal anesthetic, first
spinal headaches.
Description of Spinal Anesthesia
• “I extinguished my cigar on
Henselbach’s knee- it was sensed
only as warmth.”
• “I struck his shin with an anvil, but
no pain was noted.”
• “His testicle was placed in a surgical
clamp. This evoked sweating and
some nausea, but no pain.”
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