Queen Elizabeth Used "Twilight Sleep" Drugs Now Deemed "Radical" During Princess Anne's Birth 75 Years Ago
The late Queen gave up the controversial practice when Prince Edward was born.
Princess Anne is celebrating her 75th birthday on Friday, August 15, and life in the Royal Family looked much different when she came into the world in 1950. Queen Elizabeth—who married Prince Philip in 1947—was still a princess while her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, sat on the throne. Prince Charles was just shy of two years old when his little sister was born, and like the future King, Princess Anne was born in a way that would be deemed extremely controversial in 2025.
Over the years, multiple royal sources have stated that the late Queen experienced a pain-free birth method using drugs that put her into a "twilight sleep." Most recently, Milli Hill, author of The Positive Birth Book, told the Daily Mail that Princess Elizabeth joined women around the world in choosing to be sedated during her birth, a method viewed by some as progressive.
"News travelled fast of a clinic in Germany that was offering these 'pain-free' births," Hill told the outlet. "Women began to demand twilight sleep as part of the new discourse about their autonomy, and the method spread across the USA, UK and Europe, with even Queen Elizabeth II using a version in the birth of her first three children."
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip posed with Princess Anne on her christening day in 1950.
A baby Princess Anne is seen with her mother in 1950.
According to the Associated Press, expecting mothers "were knocked out during childbirth by a combination of different drugs such as morphine or scopolamine that thrust them into a semi-conscious state and often took away their memory of birth."
The practice was later eliminated due to side effects such as "horrifying flashbacks, increased birth complications and even death," per Hill. However, even in the fifties, "Queen Elizabeth's decision to use this extreme form of pain relief would have been viewed as 'radical' at the time," the outlet noted.
Fortunately, mother and baby were healthy when the Princess Royal came into the world, with Prince Philip telling people after her birth, "It's the sweetest girl." And while Prince Andrew was also born while his mother was in twilight sleep, Queen Elizabeth chose to deliver normally with her fourth and youngest child, Prince Edward.
