Birth of Kaiser Wilhelm II

Queen Victoria sent her own physician, Sir James Clark, to be present at the birth of Wilhelm. No expert obstetrician, he was nonetheless an early advocate of chloroform. The Princess's birth pain began around midnight on January 26, and lasted for some 15 hours till the afternoon of the 27th. During that time she was given chloroform in several heavy doses to deal with the considerable and prolonged pain of the birth, and also ergot.

Doctors today would not do this for fear of further endangering the oxygen supply to the child. We know now that ergot too carries considerable risk to the baby.

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