Inside the late Queen's radical births: Author reveals how Elizabeth was drugged into a 'twilight sleep' to deliver Charles, Anne and Andrew 'pain-free'

Daily Mail​

30-07-2025

Any woman who has given birth will likely say that labour was the most painful experience of their lives - so it is no surprise that Queen Elizabeth II went out of her way to absent herself from it.
The late Queen was put into a 'twilight sleep' when giving birth to Charles in 1948, Anne in 1950 and Andrew in 1960.
Twilight sleep, also known as dammerschlaf, was first developed in Germany by obstetricians Bernhardt Kronig and Karl Gauss in 1906.
Using a combination of the drugs scopolamine and morphine, the mother enters an amnesic state prior to giving birth and wakes up with no memory of the baby being delivered - usually by forceps.
Queen Elizabeth's decision to use this extreme form of pain relief would have been viewed as 'radical' at the time.
Milli Hill, author of bestselling pregnancy guide The Positive Birth Book, exclusively told MailOnline: 'News travelled fast of a clinic in Germany that was offering these "pain-free" births.
'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.'
But there is a long list of sinister reasons as to why twilight sleep has been resigned to history.
As a result of being pumped full of drugs, the mother often had no recollection of giving birth - to the extent that they did not recognise their own baby.
Some mothers struggled to bond with their children as a result of the procedure, while others refused to accept they had given birth at all.
Milli explained: 'Taken up as a way for women to gain more control in childbirth, the reality seemed very far away from this.
'Women were placed in padded, crib-like beds, blindfolded, with cotton wool in their ears and their arms tied down or even straight-jacketed.
'Conscious, but entirely unaware of their own actions, the women under twilight sleep would thrash around and scream at full volume, often waking with feelings of disassociation and friction burns to their arms from fighting their restraint.
'This, along with side effects such as horrifying flashbacks, increased birth complications and even death. This caused the method to decline in popularity, but the use of scopolamine and the whole concept of "knock 'em out, drag 'em out" obstetrics pervaded for 60 or more years of the 20th century.'
While it is not clear exactly what happened to Queen Elizabeth II when she used twilight sleep to give birth to Andrew in 1960, a lady-in-waiting told royal biographer Gyles Brandreth that she suffered 'post-natal side effects'.
And it is no coincidence that Prince Edward was born naturally four years later.
By the late 20th century, twilight sleep had been phased out, as doctors became increasingly aware of its risks.
The late Queen knew her fourth child would be her last, so she made the decision to be awake for the delivery.
But this was not the only change Elizabeth insisted upon for her final birth.
Inspired by women's magazines of the time, she wanted Philip to be involved in the labour.
Instead of attending the birth of his first three children, Philip had opted to play polo, challenge his private secretary to a round of squash and swim in the Buckingham Palace pool.
Writing in her book My Husband And I: The Inside Story Of 70 Years Of Royal Marriage, royal expert Ingrid Seward said: 'The Queen, by then aged 37, had asked him to be there; she'd been keenly reading women's magazines that stressed the importance of involving fathers in childbirth and had become fascinated by the idea.
'Thus Philip became the first royal father in modern history to witness the arrival of one of his children.'
The Duke of Edinburgh held his wife's hand as she gave birth to Prince Edward in the Belgian Suite of Buckingham Palace in 1964.
Notably, the late Queen's children, Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward, were among the last generation of royals to be born at home.
Upon his birth at the Lindo Wing in London's St Mary's in 1982, Prince William became the first direct heir to the throne to be born in a hospital, rather than Buckingham Palace.
Years later, his wife Catherine would give birth to their children George, Charlotte and Louis in the same private wing.
Much like Charles and Diana, William and Catherine faced a mass photo call outside St Mary's each time they welcomed a child into the world.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, by contrast, announced that they wanted to keep details surrounding the birth of their first child private, as Meghan is said to have considered the idea of posing for pictures and greeting well-wishers straight after the birth to be archaic.
It is believed that the American actress initially wanted a home birth. Both she and Harry had studied hypnobirthing techniques and were hopeful of having an all-female, midwife-led delivery in the privacy of Frogmore Cottage on the Windsor estate.
But after she reached her due date, a home birth began to look increasingly unlikely.
Princess Charlotte (left) was born on May 2, 2015, and Prince Louis (right) was born on April 23, 2018 - both at the Lindo Wing in London's St Mary's Hospital
Indeed, experts had long warned that as a first-time mother and one who, at 37, had experienced what was classed, in medical terms, as a 'geriatric pregnancy', there would be a strong chance that the Duchess would require some sort of medical intervention.
More than a week overdue, Meghan was eventually taken to The Portland Hospital in London, where she gave birth to Archie on May 6, 2019.
Standing outside the stables at Windsor, Harry reassured the public that both mother and baby were 'doing incredibly well', calling it 'the most amazing experience'.
In his bombshell memoir Spare, Harry went into more detail about the birth experience, confirming that Meghan was induced in a private room.
According to Harry, his wife settled into a bath and immersed herself in the calming sounds of Deva Premal's Sanskrit mantras, which had been remixed into hymns.
Meanwhile, the Duke's job was to set the ambience by arranging electric candles - the same ones he had used during his proposal to Meghan - around the room.
Among the items in her overnight bag was a framed photograph of Harry's late mother, Princess Diana, which he propped up on a small table. He noted in his memoir that this touching tribute was Meghan's idea.
But, despite the ambience, Meghan's efforts to breathe through the discomfort became overwhelming and she ultimately had to receive two epidurals.
'The anaesthetist hurried in. Off went the music, on went the lights,' Harry wrote.
There was a brief moment of concern when the umbilical cord was discovered to be wrapped around the baby during delivery but, soon after, their healthy son Archie was born.
'A nurse swept the baby into a towel and placed him on Meg's chest and we both cried to see him, meet him,' the Duke wrote.
'Our ayurvedic doctor had advised us that, in the first minute of life, a baby absorbs everything said to them. So whisper to the baby, tell the baby your wish for him, your love. Tell.
'We told.'