{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,4]],"date-time":"2026-07-04T12:10:18Z","timestamp":1783167018898,"version":"3.54.6"},"reference-count":47,"publisher":"BMJ","issue":"2","funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000155","name":"Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["430-2020-00454"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["430-2020-00454"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000155","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["bmj.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Med Humanities"],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2024,4,7]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2024,6]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>In the early twentieth century, childbirth was increasingly being viewed as a medical experience in North America. Women were encouraged to engage with \u2018scientific motherhood\u2019 by adhering to medical advice and undergoing the latest medical and technological interventions. Two movements simultaneously emerged that engaged with scientific motherhood: the positive eugenics movement, which sought to encourage reproduction among specific groups, and the twilight sleep movement, which promoted the use of pain management during childbirth. While these two distinct movements had different goals, they intersected both in their intended audiences (white, middle-class and upper-class American women) and in their prioritisation of medical and scientific authority. This article builds on work that has identified connections between twilight sleep and the eugenics movement to consider the role of twentieth-century magazines in rhetorically linking the eugenics and twilight sleep movements, and how this contributed to constructing the cultural role of the \u2018scientific mother\u2019.<\/jats:p>\n               <jats:p>As a key proponent of twilight sleep, the American monthly periodical <jats:italic>McClure\u2019s Magazine<\/jats:italic> is the focus of this investigation. Articles published in <jats:italic>McClure\u2019s<\/jats:italic> incorporated the rhetoric of the eugenics movement to promote twilight sleep and \u2018painless childbirth\u2019, while also engaging with concerns of the eugenics movement by framing the falling birthrate among American women as a social and political problem. Alongside the rhetorical framing within <jats:italic>McClure\u2019s<\/jats:italic> articles, we focus on visual material such as photographs that exhibit \u2018eugenic mothers\u2019 and healthy \u2018twilight sleep babies\u2019 to promote the method\u2019s safety and efficacy to American audiences. This article incorporates scholarship on early twentieth-century eugenics and photography, women\u2019s involvement in the eugenics movement, and twilight sleep and the politics of women\u2019s health. Through its analysis, this article demonstrates that the convergence of developments in obstetrics and the eugenics movement in popular media had complex implications for women\u2019s reproductive agency in the early twentieth century.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1136\/medhum-2023-012859","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,17]],"date-time":"2024-05-17T14:39:57Z","timestamp":1715956797000},"page":"222-234","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/crossmarkpolicy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["\u201cThe highest in each class was a twilight baby\u201d: scientific motherhood, twilight sleep and the eugenics movement in <i>McClure\u2019s Magazine<\/i>"],"prefix":"10.1136","volume":"50","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7195-6515","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jerika","family":"Sanderson","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"English Language and Literature, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6195-9328","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Heather A","family":"Love","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"English Language and Literature, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"239","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.1","unstructured":"America. 1916. \u201cTwilight Musings.\u201d"},{"key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.2","unstructured":"Apple R. D . 2006. Perfect motherhood: science and childrearing in America. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press."},{"key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.3","unstructured":"Beckley Z . 1922. \u201cTwilight Sleep.\u201d In McClure\u2019s Magazine (1893-1926)."},{"key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.4","unstructured":"Boyd M. , and Tracy M. . 1914. \u201cMore About Painless Childbirth.\u201d In McClure\u2019s Magazine."},{"key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.5","unstructured":"Burnham J. C . 2015. Health Care in America: A History. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press."},{"key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.6","unstructured":"Burton Blades R. , and Burton Blades L. . 1922. \u201cTwilight Sleep in America.\u201d In McClure\u2019s Magazine"},{"issue":"10307","key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1208","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(21)02129-2","article-title":"\u201cThe Power and Politics of Fetal Imagery.\u201d","volume":"398","author":"Callender","year":"2021","journal-title":"The Lancet"},{"key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.8","unstructured":"Cartwright J . 2018. \u201cTwilight Sleep.\u201d Embryo Project Encyclopedia. https:\/\/embryo.asu.edu\/pages\/twilight-sleep."},{"issue":"1","key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"12","DOI":"10.1016\/j.endeavour.2008.11.001","article-title":"\u201cBetter Babies: Social Engineering for \u2018a Better Nation, a Better World.\u2019\u201d","volume":"33","author":"Crnic","year":"2009","journal-title":"Endeavour"},{"key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.10","unstructured":"Current Opinion (1913-1925) . 1914. \u201cMedical Experts on the Claims Made for the Painless Childbirth.\u201d"},{"issue":"5","key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"489","DOI":"10.1089\/jwh.1996.5.489","article-title":"\u201cThe Debate Over Twilight Sleep: Women Influencing Their Medicine.\u201d","volume":"5","author":"Hairston","year":"1996","journal-title":"Journal of Women\u2019s Health"},{"issue":"2","key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.12","first-page":"191","article-title":"\u201cThe Search for Purpose in a Post-Darwinian Universe: George Bernard Shaw, \u2018Creative Evolution\u2019, and Shavian Eugenics: \u2018The Dark Side of the Force.\u2019\u201d","volume":"28","author":"Hale","year":"2006","journal-title":"History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences"},{"key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.13","unstructured":"Hale R . 1923. \u201cMy Impression of Twilight Sleep.\u201d In McClure\u2019s Magazine (1893-1926)"},{"key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hansen R. , and King D. . 2013. \u201cSterilized by the State.\u201d In Sterilized by the State: Eugenics, Race, and the Population Scare in Twentieth-Century North America. 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University of Illinois Press."},{"issue":"2","key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"119","DOI":"10.2307\/845898","article-title":"\u201c\u2018In the Finest, Most Womanly Way\u2019: Women in the Southern Eugenics Movement.\u201d","volume":"39","author":"Larson","year":"1995","journal-title":"The American Journal of Legal History"},{"issue":"1","key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"147","DOI":"10.1086\/493783","article-title":"\u201cBirthing and Anesthesia: The Debate over Twilight Sleep.\u201d","volume":"6","author":"Leavitt","year":"1980","journal-title":"Signs"},{"key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.23","unstructured":"Leavitt J. W . 1986. Brought to Bed: Childbearing in America, 1750 to 1950. New York: Oxford University Press. http:\/\/hdl.handle.net\/2027\/heb.04403."},{"key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.24","unstructured":"Leavitt J. W . 1999. \u201cThe Growth of Medical Authority: Technology and Morals in Turn-of-the-Century Obstetrics.\u201d In Women and Health in America, edited by Leavitt J. W. , Second Edition. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press."},{"key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.25","unstructured":"Leupp C. , and Hendrick B. J. . 1915. \u201cTwilight Sleep in America.\u201d In McClure\u2019s Magazine (1893-1926)."},{"key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Lombardo P . 2019. \u201cEugenics and Public Health: Historical Connections and Ethical Implications.\u201d In The Oxford Handbook of Public Health Ethics, by Paul Lombardo, edited by Mastroianni A C. , Kahn J P. , and Kass N E. , 641\u201352. Oxford University Press. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/oxfordhb\/9780190245191.013.56.","DOI":"10.1093\/oxfordhb\/9780190245191.013.56"},{"key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.27","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/medhum-2017-011419"},{"key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.28","unstructured":"Maxwell A . 2008. Picture Imperfect: Photography and Eugenics 1870-1940. Brighton [England]: Sussex Academic Press."},{"key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.29","unstructured":"McClure\u2019s Magazine 1900-1910 . n.d. \u201cModernist Journals Project.\u201d Available from: https:\/\/modjourn.org\/journal\/mcclures-magazine\/"},{"key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mitchinson W . 2002. Giving Birth in Canada, 1900-1950. 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Feminist Eugenics in America: From Free Love to Birth Control, 1880\u20131930. Ph.D., United States -- Minnesota: University of Minnesota."},{"key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.37","unstructured":"Richardson A. Steese . 1915. \u201cSafety First for Mother.\u201d In McClure\u2019s Magazine (1893-1926)."},{"key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.38","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1001\/jama.1914.02570160076033"},{"issue":"2","key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.39","first-page":"199","article-title":"\u201cTransforming Better Babies into Fitter Families: Archival Resources and the History of American Eugenics Movement, 1908-1930.\u201d","volume":"149","author":"Selden","year":"2005","journal-title":"Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society"},{"key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.40","unstructured":"Starr P . 2017. The Social Transformation of American Medicine. Updated Edition. 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S . 1922. \u201cTwilight Sleep--II: Chronicle of an Experience in the Maternity Hospital at Freiburg.\u201d In McClure\u2019s Magazine (1893-1926)."},{"key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.45","unstructured":"Walsh E. P . 1923. \u201cTwilight Sleep and the Baby: A Ten Years\u2019 Record of Happy Mothers and Healthy Children.\u201d In McClure\u2019s Magazine (1893-1926)."},{"key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.46","unstructured":"Wilson R. A . 2014. Eugenics: Positive vs. Negative. Eugenics Archives."},{"key":"2025092411523546000_50.2.222.47","unstructured":"Wolf J. H . 2009. Deliver Me from Pain: Anesthesia and Birth in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press."}],"container-title":["Medical Humanities"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/syndication.highwire.org\/content\/doi\/10.1136\/medhum-2023-012859","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,24]],"date-time":"2025-09-24T18:52:48Z","timestamp":1758739968000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/mh.bmj.com\/lookup\/doi\/10.1136\/medhum-2023-012859"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,17]]},"references-count":47,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,14]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2024,6]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1136\/medhum-2023-012859"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/medhum-2023-012859","relation":{},"ISSN":["1468-215X","1473-4265"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1468-215X","type":"print"},{"value":"1473-4265","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,17]]}}}