Michel Odent’s 4 Tips to Ensure The Birth You Want


Your own mind gets in the way.






Michel Odent says that is to our detriment.




All words require a woman to enter her neo-cortex, to bring her brain wave activity up a notch or two. This is one reason a lot of women in advanced labor, when asked questions, will just repeat “I don’t know” or not answer at all. It’s too much work to process a question and certainly to come up with the words to answer it. A woman with good oxytocin production, in progressing labor, is in her own world. She doesn’t care about any of the things in our perceived reality, anyway. Few things need words–a woman’s experience of birth is all about feeling and being.

All light, but especially fake light, turns on the neo-cortex. It wakes us up. Birth requires us to be in a dream-like state. Our brain waves need to slow down, our primitive brains need to take over. Light makes us cast our eyes about and then our neo-cortex wants to get in on whatever is going on. Maybe analyze a few things, processes some possible threats, try to recall what it is we’re ‘supposed’ to do if we have back labor, and compile a list of reasons why that nurse might have given us the side-eye. All this is just a big ‘ol wet blanket to a mammalian body trying to birth a baby.
Anything that “makes you look” or requires attention is distracting to a woman in labor. Things should be as familiar and predictable as possible. Anything new or that requires attention slows a woman down. Attention-requiring things are especially inhibiting when they signify danger, possible danger, threat of danger, or appearance of danger.

The better term for this is ‘observers,’ but I wanted a bunch of <l> alliteration. So anyone or anything that is observing you give birth is going to inhibit your birth by stimulating your neo-cortex. When we are observed, we observe ourselves. People or machines, in the room or without, it doesn’t matter. All the waiting and watching makes birth hard.

So, best case scenario: You aren’t afraid and sneak off to your birth cave. Turn off your human mind and think very, very carefully (beforehand!!) about who you invite into this space.Michel Odent says for the safest birth you need “one experienced and silent midwife sitting in a corner.” Sometimes, he says, he adds that the midwife should be knitting and smiling.

For the full article….http://www.mothering.com/articles/researcher-advises-stop-thinking-avoid-4-ls/

Leave a Reply


WordPress.com Logo


Google photo


Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Connecting to %s