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    Birth and Breastfeeding: Rediscovering the Needs of Women During Pregnancy and Childbirth
    Unavailable
    Birth and Breastfeeding: Rediscovering the Needs of Women During Pregnancy and Childbirth
    Unavailable
    Birth and Breastfeeding: Rediscovering the Needs of Women During Pregnancy and Childbirth
    Ebook169 pages3 hours

    Birth and Breastfeeding: Rediscovering the Needs of Women During Pregnancy and Childbirth

    By Michel Odent

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Humanity, argues Michel Odent, stands at a crossroads in the history of childbirth - and the direction we choose to take will have critical consequences. Until recently a woman could not have had a baby without releasing a complex cocktail of ‘love hormones’. In many societies today, most women give birth without relying on the release of such a flow of hormones. Some give birth via caesarean section, while others use drugs that not only block the release of these natural substances, but do not have their beneficial behavioural effects. ‘This unprecedented situation must be considered in terms of civilization’, says Odent, and gives us urgent new reasons to rediscover the basic needs of women in labour.

    At a time when pleas for the ‘humanization’ of childbirth are fashionable, the author suggests, rather, that we should first accept our ‘mammalian’ condition and give priority to the woman’s need for privacy and to feel secure. The activity of the intellect, the use of language, and many cultural beliefs and rituals - which are all special to humans - are handicaps in the period surrounding birth. Says Odent: ‘To give birth to her baby, the mother needs privacy. She needs to feel unobserved. The newborn baby needs the skin of the mother, the smell of the mother, her breast. These are all needs that we hold in common with the other mammals, but which humans have learned to neglect, to ignore or even deny.”

    Expectant parents, midwives, doulas, childbirth educators, those involved in public health, and all those interested in the future of humanity, will find this a provocative and visionary book.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherClairview Books
    Release dateJul 9, 2012
    ISBN9781905570416
    Unavailable
    Birth and Breastfeeding: Rediscovering the Needs of Women During Pregnancy and Childbirth
    Author

    Michel Odent

    MICHEL ODENT, MD, was in charge of the surgical and maternity units at the Pithiviers state hospital in France during the years 1962-1985. For many years he was the only doctor in charge of around 1,000 yearly births. He is the author of the first article in medical literature about the use of birthing pools (Lancet, 1983), the first article about the initiation of lactation during the hour following birth (1977), and the first article applying the ‘Gate Control Theory of Pain’ to obstetrics (1975). He coined the term ‘hormone of love’ when mentioning oxytocin. He created the Primal Health Research database www.primalhealthresearch.com, and has been a member of the Professional Advisory Board of La Leche League International for some 40 years. Michel Odent is Visiting Professor at the Odessa National Medical University and Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Brasilia.

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    • 4/5
      Great book that explores the importance of uninterrupted physiological birth.