Dr Natalie Crawford

It was called Butasol.

It's basically a sedative.

And it was mother's little helper.

And I found an old magazine article with a...

If you look at the magazine articles from the 50s and 60s on these medications, mostly sedatives, that were given to women, it's like, now she can do the laundry again.

Now she's flipping a pancake in the ad in the apron in the 1950s, you know, like, get your mom back, get your wife back.

And it was a combination of estrogen plus a sedative.

And I was just absolutely floored.

And I remember mom's little bottle.

And it was called butasol.

And it would sit on her counter, and she would talk about it like it was her talisman, like it was her.

And I always thought of it as mommy's little helper, you know, like, oh, I need my butasol.

Oh, this happened.

Where's my butasol?

Where's my butasol?

And when I was researching and writing and reading about these sedatives that were given to women, I was like, wait.

Mama, I remember the bottle.

I remember what it was called because she talked about it all the time.

I went and looked it up, and it's a derivative of phenobarbital.

Oh, my gosh.