Remembering Michel Odent
Showing us species-normal birthing
Michel Odent, French surgeon and obstetrician, passed away recently. His gracious presence will be missed.
Like anyone speaking truth to power, Michel Odent spoke to us from outside the dominant way of doing things. He was a cultural creative, reminding us of our millions-year-old tried-and-true way of giving birth.
Early on, he observed how medicalized birth practices impeded successful birth. Many medicalized birth practices still today interfere with healthy birthing and maternal-child bonding. He instituted practices that were more respectful of mother and baby.
He emphasized in particular the importance of maternal state of mind. She must avoid thinking or anything that pushes her into neocortical activation. “Giving birth is not the business of … the intellect” (2013, p. 75). Such impairing experiences include (1) language—no questions, no discussion of centimeters. Silence is a basic need of a laboring mother. (2) Bright light. Darkness reduces neocortical activity. (3) Various forms of monitoring that induce her to feel like she is being observed. One midwife knitting in the corner is advised. (4) Perception of danger. (5) Cold. These impede the process of birthing. Instead, she must submit to the wisdom of her animal mind.
Giuliana Meile (2019) explains that birthing “often involves facing strong emotions and forgotten ways of feeling that are hard to regulate. It is like suddenly finding oneself as an infant, unable to handle or contain the movements of the soul” (p. 16)…“The woman in labour has to follow the contraction, bear it, and then let herself surrender to, and take advantage of the restorative and painless pause that occurs at every contraction’s end. A woman who is trusting and relaxed will be able to sleep and even dream during these pauses, as reported to me by a woman in childbirth.” (p. 24)
Indeed, natural birth is slow, with rhythmic up and down movements, forward to the new and back to the familiar, allowing gradual adjustment as the child slowly comes into contact with a new world. The mother too needs time to let go of her omnipotence in providing the child’s every need, to welcome a new form of relatedness. Childbirth is a moment of transition from a passive symbiotic bond that required no effort by mother or child to an active symbiotic bond.
Because of their suddenness, C-sections can cause a deep sense of loss.
“During an easy, unmedicated birth, there is a time when the labouring woman behaves as if she is cutting herself off from our world. She becomes indifferent to what is happening around her. She tends to forget what she has read, what she has learned and what her plans were. He may behave in a way that would usually be considered unacceptable in a civilized woman: for example, she may dare to scream or to swear. She may be impolite. She may talk nonsense. She may find herself in the most bizarre, unexpected postures. These postures are often primitive, quadrupedal. When the labouring woman is as if ‘on another planet,’ it means that there is no neocortical control anymore” (Odent, 2013, pp.75-76).
Laboring mothers do not need to drink, unless thirsty, because hormones released during labor (oxytocin and vasopressin) are water retentive. Too much liquid decreases the strength of uterine contractions and can cause water intoxication and low blood sodium, which endanger mother and baby.
In the final moments of an undisturbed birth, a surge of adrenaline occurs, triggering mother’s fetal ejection reflex, requiring no pushing for the baby to emerge. Mother is wide awake along with baby. The peak of oxytocin release for mother occurs in the few moments after birth when the baby is crawling up her belly, searching for a nipple. Adrenaline is still flowing in both mother and baby as are opioids preparing them to bond, skin-to-skin and eye-to-eye.
Both Odent and Meile emphasize how “everything we do for the survival of our species is accompanied by pleasure” (Meile, 38), even orgasmic birthing.
In describing Italian hospital labor and delivery practices, Miele (2019), was astonished that the medical staff seemed unaware of the relational aspects of their care, as if they were incognizant of the fact their patients were persons, persons in relationship.
Odent (2001) asks “why do all societies ritually disturb the first contact between mother and baby, for example by transmitting the belief that colostrum is tainted or harmful? One must keep in mind that during a long phase of the history of mankind there has been an evolutionary advantage in developing the human potential for aggression rather than the capacity to love. During many millennia the basic strategy for survival of most human groups has been to dominate Nature and to dominate other human groups.” From book cover flap.
We still have much of Odent’s wisdom to integrate into our understandings and practices during the perinatal period. May his spirit live on!
Finally, here is a tongue in cheek set of recommendations by Odent (2001) to babies about how to ensure they are breastfed.
‘Babyist’ Interlude 2: Don’t Bite your Mum!
Twelve recommendations for being breastfed successfully (with the permission of ‘Babies Anonymous’)”
- Choose your country of birth carefully. If you are born in Denmark, for example, you are twice as likely to be breastfed successfully than if you are born in France.
- Choose your grandmother carefully. You are more likely to be breastfed contentedly if your maternal grandmother breastfed her children, particularly your mother.
- Choose your mother carefully. You are more likely to be breastfed easily if your mum was able, given the opportunity, to give birth without drugs and intervention.
- be assertive from the very beginning. Try to find the breast as early as possible after being born, ideally during your first hour outside the womb.
- Avoid anywhere that has an aggressive smell. Your sense of smell is the best conductor towards the nipple, and one of your first ways of identifying your mum.
- Spend plenty of time as naked as possible, in close, skin-to-skin contact with your mum.
- Keep your hands free so that you can touch your mum’s body while sucking. There is a hand-mother connection.
- Choose the family bed carefully. If the bed is low, you and your mum will feel more secure. Your mum will not be obsessed with the fear that you might fall out. If the bed is wide enough, there might be a little space for another member of the family, such as your dad.
- Always express your needs clearly. As soon as your mum perceives what they are, she starts to release oxytocin which triggers the ‘milk ejection reflex.’
- When your mum has eaten something you don’t like, let her know.
- Constantly remind your mum about the fast development of your brain. This might influence her diet.
- Don’t bite your mum when your first teeth grow.
From: Odent, The Scientification of Love, 2001 (pp. 116-117)
References
Mieli, G. (2019). Do mothers dream of electric babies? The importance of emotional bonds for growing, nurturing, and educating. London: Routledge.
Odent, M. (2001). The scientification of love. Free Association Books.
Odent, M. (2013). Childbirth and the future of homo sapiens. Pinter & Martin Ltd.