The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-09-04
VIII. IGHT SLEEP"
 SUCCESS HERE
Treatment Applied in Four Ma ternity Gases at the Hart
 ford Hospital.
HOW APPLIED AND
 WHAT ACCOMPLISHED
Prospective Mother Is Con- scious of Surroundings, But
 Unconscious of Pain

The new twilight sleep treatment Tn obstetrics. which has been pro-. claimed as the greatest boon ever dis. covered for woman in travail, has been success in the Hartford hosDi- 9tai, says the Hartford Times. and is being given there in special cases This treatment. the success of which has made Freiberg, the little Ger man town on the border of the Black Forest. the asylum of many American and English mothers-to-be, in the last few months, and to which those who could, have returned there to bear their children because of the hu- snane atmosphere and painless dAliv- cry of the stDaznmerschial" method is yet in its experimental stage in the local hospital The details of the treatment as given in theglocal hospt- tai. have not been announced py the medical fraterntty, but 1t is known that four cases have been treated by the Freiberg method during the last two months in the Hartford hospital in tlle house service of Drs q. Weston Chester, and that the results have been encouraging Dr. Phineas H. Ingalls, head of the department of gynecoIogy at the hospital. said re- < gently that the outcome of the four cases had certainly been pleasing, and that no bad results had been observed in any of them pr. In gals added that the four cases were not enough on which to base any recommendations of. general kind. but suggested that the practice of the method would be continued at the hospital until adequate data had been obtained from which to draw general conclusions. Meanwhile the future of this wonderful method looks very bright, and encouraging for all women called to go through the OF deal Of motherhood
 The results which are claimed for the Frefberg method are little short of wonderful Although it's opera ton seems comparatively simple it re- dukres the constant attendance of a taker to observe the condition of the patient Therefore. the method is applicable at present only in hospt- fals; not in private homes unless spe- ciaI attendance can be provided Mothers in every locality are begin hing to realize the hopes held out to them, and women's clubs have called the attention Of hospital staffs throughout the country to the treat ment- This has greatly helped to in- to the method and it's efficacy and re- suits.
 The Treafznent-
 The stsziHght sleep is coaGition bordering on natural sleep, Induced by hypodernnic infection of two
 
 The drugs produce an unusual and very deicate1y balanceds condition of conscfousness. during which the body loses the sense of pain, but retains the power of muscular contraction It seems to be in the twilight zone, " between complete wakefulness with all it's feelings of pain and muscular control and the condition Of com pIete anesthesia in which all pain and also the muscular powers are lost of the process of childbirth is robbed of pain and there are no memo ries of pain to weaken the mother after the baby has been born Recovery is also quicker than in cases that have not received the Freiberg treatment.
 The dose consists of one one-hun- dredth of grain Of scopolamine and one-eighth of a grain of morphine, in Jected Into the hip muscles After the administration of the drugs the patient is taken into darkened room where the gradually on-coming ef- fects of the drugs are awaited In about twenty minutes they begin to appear The physician comes into the room and tests the mental condition Of the patient If the drugs have had the usual effect the mind of the patient is clouded. There is a dreamy conscfousne with a lesseAing in the perception of external objects. The sense of pain is lost and there is a sleepIike condition. But this sleep mess is different from ordinary sleep Tn that the contractile power of the muscles are not impaired.
 Important Feature.
 The Important thing in all the treatment is the fact that the birth process is gone through with in the normal way. assisted by the proper muscles; but. without the pain.
 When the motheP -emerges from the effect of the drugs. she has no mem ory of what has taken place And she feels no had after-effects. Te be sure. the drugs used are poisons but they are used in such small quan- titles that there have been no fatali, ties in thousands of cases-more thar 5000 at Frfeberg
 There is psychological factor ir the treatment which has its value The dark room. the quiet, and the confident expectation of freedom from pain, all combine to remove feal and pain from the consciousn ess. The most important thing Is that at las the anxiety and the distress of the woman in travail have bean done away.
 The constant care of the German physician for his patient. from the time the first labor pains make them. Ee1ves. felt until the child has beer delivered, is said to be more favor. able Do the Freiberg method in Ger. many than medical practice in Amer. fca- AmeF1can doctors are said to bt more careless as to the progress o- the patient toward delivery, excep for ascertatning that progress is be ing made in the right direction. | ig said to be a practice, too common with American physicians, to Ieav. the patient after the coming of tn, first labor pains. until just before tn, crucial moment This practice wouIt not do with the Frefberg method
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