1500s - Mothers-to-be prepared their wills when they learned they were pregnant.European women, attended by midwives and female family members, gave birth in horseshoe-shaped chairs.

1591 - In Scotland, Eufame Maclayne was burned at the stake for asking for pain relief during delivery of twins.

Mid-1700s - Forceps are introduced to help deliver the baby safely during a stalled labor.

1853 - Chloroform gained popularity after Queens Victoria used the anesthetic during her eighth delivery.

1910s - Twilight sleep, a treatment involving scopolamine and morphine, made women forget the labor experience altogether.

1915 - The growing feminist movement championed pain management during childbirth.

1920s - Hospital birth became more common, including the systematic use of forceps, episiotomy and anesthesia as advocated by Dr. Joseph DeLee.

1942 - Dr. Grantly Dick-Read proclaimed the benefits of “natural childbirth, without anesthesia or tools,” in his bestseller “Childbirth Without Fear.”

1960s - Twilight sleep lost popularity as news of its side effects spread. These side effects included hallucination and a temporary impairment of the baby’s ability to breathe.

1970s - Epidurals gained popularity along with techniques like hypnosis, breathwork and water birth.Fathers were usually allowed to stay with their partners through labor and delivery.

1980s - Women advocated for alternatives to giving birth in a hospital, including home births and birth centers.

2000s - C-sections accounted for about a third of deliveries. By the early 2000s, over half of all women who gave birth vaginally received an epidural or spinal block.

Today - Women have more childbirth options than ever, including home birth, vaginal birth after C-section, “gentle C-section” and epidural.

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