Michel Odent studied medicine in Paris and was educated as a surgeon. He has been presented in Lancet as “one of the last real general surgeons”. Dr. Odent was in charge of the surgical and maternity units of the Pithiviers Hospital (France) from 1962 to 1985, where he developed a special interest in environmental factors influencing the birth process. He introduced concepts like home-like birthing rooms and birthing pools in maternity hospitals, and singing sessions for pregnant women. After his hospital career he was involved in home birth. He founded the Primal Health Research Centre in London, and designed a database (primalhealthhresearch.org) in order to compile epidemiological studies. These studies explore correlations between what happens during the “Primal period” and health later on. Odent is the author of the first articles about the initiation of breastfeeding during the hour following birth, the first article about the use of birthing pools during labor, and the first article applying the “Gate Control Theory of Pain” to obstetrics. In a book published in 1986 (“Primal Health”), he provided evidence that homeostasis is established during the “primal period” (fetal life, birth and the months following birth): this is the phase of life when human basic adaptive systems are adjusting their “set point levels”. Odent is the author of 13 books published in 22 languages. In his books he constantly refers to the concept of reduced neocortical activity as a key to rediscover the basic needs of laboring women and to make possible a real “fetus ejection reflex”.
The best way to evaluate the effects of stress deprivation at birth is to compare neonates born by pre-labor cesarean and all the others. There are documented differences regarding lung functions, sense of smell, brain development, metabolic pathways, establishment of the microbiome, and gene expression. In the current scientific context it would be relevant, from the point of view of the baby, to contrast birth with labor and birth without labor, instead of only contrasting vaginal route and abdominal route.
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