Birth and Breastfeeding (Paperback)

by Michel Odent (Author) "One hundred years before Darwin, Jean Jacques Rousseau dared to include human beings in the animal kingdom..." (more)
Key Phrases: first contact between mother, electronic foetal monitoring, period surrounding birth, United States, Niles Newton, Mother Earth (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Book Description
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 also do not have their beneficial behavioral effects. "This unprecedented situation must be considered in terms of civilization," says Odent. It gives us urgent new reasons to rediscover the basic needs of women in labor.

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

About the Author
Michel Odent is popularly known as the obstetrician who introduced the concepts of birthing pools and homelike birthing rooms at the maternity unit in Pithiviers (France) in the 1960s and 1970s. His ongoing, influential work in childbirth and health research has featured in TV documentaries such as the BBC's Birth Reborn, and in authoritative medical journals. More recently, he founded the Primal Health Research Centre in London and has developed a preconceptional program to minimize the effects of intrauterine and milk pollution. He is the author of dozens of scientific papers and ten books published in twenty languages.

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Clairview Books; 2Rev Ed edition (February 12, 2007)
• ISBN-10: 1905570066
• ISBN-13: 978-1905570065
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
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• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #925,175 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
  
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