In the past two weeks, I have seen several postings in various forums, blogs, and on birth related news sites about the show Mad Men which depicted the shows character Betty Draper giving birth to her third child with something called “twilight sleep” which unfortunately was very common during this period of time.  A great description of the episode itself was from Science and Sensibility writer, Amy Romano :

Last week, the main character’s wife, Betty Draper, gave birth to her third child. While her husband, Don, sits in the waiting room drinking scotch with another nervous expectant dad, Betty is subjected to 1960’s “standard of care” obstetrics. Left alone in a labor room, she is shaved, given an enema, and then receives the crown jewel of her modern childbirth experience: medications to induce twilight sleep, which also induce a mad stupor and land Betty in restraints because of her erratic, combative behavior. As a midwife and a mother, the most difficult part for me to watch was when Betty awoke from her stupor, swaddled baby in arms, with no memory of the experience. You can watch all of the birth-related clips from the show at Jezebel.

http://blog.ctnews.com/elwood/2009/09/29/going-back-in-time-twilight-sleep/#comment-52