The Nature of Birth and Breastfeeding

"The Nature of Birth and Breastfeeding" has as its premise that in order to gain a truer understanding of the human experience, we must examine the way other mammals function during birth, breastfeeding, and parenting.

Odent points out some habitual procedures which confuse the approaches to childbirth in Western society.

On the one hand, privacy and minimal intervention are key to the ideal birth environments, yet hospitals and the advent of high-tech obstetrics often indicate the opposite, with a result of higher ceasarean and morbidity rates.

Odent uncovers another irony - the proven need of mother and infant to receive support for an extensive period of breastfeeding may actually be endangered by the nuclear monogamous family structure.

The necessity of allowing women to follow their instincts during labour, birth and breastfeeding is documented by Odent's studies of innate childbirth reactions in various cultures and traditions.

The author successfully describes the medical, physiological, social, and emotional rationale behind the need to follow nature's design more closely. Expectant parents, childbirth professionals, psychologists, and all those concerned with our kinship to Mother Earth will find this a provocative and illuminating book, which challenges many of our accepted social policies.

With "The Nature of Birth and Breastfeeding", we are closer to the day when, as Dr Odent puts it, "the caesarean section will become a rare and wonderful rescue operation", and the now-common terms such as "support", "assistance" and "coaching" may find themselves outdated.