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Midwives...Lullabies...and Mother Earth

Midwives...Lullabies...and Mother Earth

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'We know more about what determines the health of spinach than we do of people,' says Dr. Michel Odent, a pioneer of the natural birth movement. To Odent, health is the key to changing the values by which we lead our lives.

When Odent first began to practice medicine, a woman giving birth was treated as a critically ill patient rather than as a person experiencing a natural act. By designing intimate birthing rooms and giving mothers and midwives more status, Odent's work allows women to experience more fully the miracle of giving birth.

Odent has also studied the long-term health impact of his techniques. He has come to the conclusion that life-long health is greatly influenced by the mother during pregnancy and birth.

Indeed, medicine should shift its focus towards nurturing and the causes of good health rather than being preoccupied with the causes of disease. Odent believes that the answers are not only medical, but social and philosophical, and he encourages us to abandon our technological vision of medicine for one consistent with the balance of all life.