The natural birth movement

The natural birth movement

Grantly Dick Read

In his book Childbirth Without Fear, first published in the 1940s, Dr. Grantly Dick-Read publicly announced the principles of natural childbirth. His philosophy was to attempt to reduce and hopefully eliminate anxiety and tension and the pain that resulted from these options through appropriate education and emotional support.

The Grantly Dick Read method taught women how to deal with tension, but placed great emphasis on the fact that knowledge dispels fear and prevents tension, which in turn controls pain.

To do this, he developed training courses with breathing control exercises and muscle relaxation, information about what to expect in a normal situation and what women can do to help themselves.

His method also taught Mother Show to look for support in the form of guidance, affirmation and sympathy. Grantly Dick-Read placed great emphasis on preparing for parenthood and birth itself.

Psychoprophylaxis

This includes training breathing techniques in preparation for labor. The techniques were developed in Russia and by Dr. Fernand Lamaze introduced to the West. The Lamaze method is by far the most popular in the United States and forms the basis for teaching by the national Childbirth Trust in the United Kingdom.

It encourages the woman to take responsibility for herself, to enter into partnership with her companions, friends and advisors. It places great emphasis on teamwork. The woman must prepare her body with specific exercises throughout the pregnancy and she must train her mind to automatically respond to any type of contraction she feels during labor.

Your partner acts as a coach and emotional support. He is expected to attend the class with the expectant mother and collaborate with her in conditioning exercises at home, as well as coach, persuade and comfort her during labor and birth.

The Leboyer philosophy

This is based on several basic principles and relates more to the baby than to his mother and her progress during labor. Dr. Frederick Leboyer explains in his book Birth Without Violence that the newborn baby feels everything and reflects all the emotions that surround him - anger, fear, impatience and so on - and that the baby is extremely sensitive through his skin, his ears, his eyes.

For this reason, he believes that all stimulation to the baby should be minimized with low light, little noise, little handling, and immersion in body-warm water, so that the baby's entry into the world is as different from his life in the womb as possible.

This teaching actually does not entirely agree with the physiology of what happens to the baby at the moment of birth. It is contact with air at a different temperature than body temperature that causes the baby to take its first breath of air to start the initial crucial function of the lungs and causes the baby's blood flow to change from fetal to mature blood flow.

It is also simply not true to say that a baby's hearing is so sensitive that it is disturbed by ambient noise. The sound of the uterine vessels in the uterus resembles a loud vacuum cleaner. Leboyer also believes that the mother is an "enemy and a monster" to the child, pushing it and crushing it within the birth passage. He compares her to a torturer. Many women reject this view because it minimizes, even diminishes, the role of the mother.

Dr. Leboyer believes that the baby should not be touched with foreign objects, but with human skin. The ideal place for the brown is to be placed face down on the mother's stomach and covered by her arms. It has been proven by experiment, not Leboyer, that this is far more efficient at preventing the baby form from losing heat than blanket heaters. Research has shown that a baby can clear mucus from its airways better when lying on its mother's stomach than with a suction tube.

Leboyer suggests closing the curtains and blinds in the delivery room and dimming the lights. Some medical authorities reject this because they say it is not possible to assess the baby's condition in dim light.

Only a few centers practice the pure Leboyer method, but many hospitals and community midwives practice Leboyer-based birth. Hospitals have been slow to adopt Leboyer because research has shown that Leboyer babies do not appear to provide any additional benefit compared to others, although many "Leboyer mothers" feel that this is the case.

Dr. Michel Odent

A French doctor named Michel Odent has advocated placing the mother in a comfortable and homely environment, giving her complete freedom to act as she wishes, and encouraging her to reach a new level of animal consciousness where she forgets her inhibitions and returns to a fairly primitive biological state.

Dr. Odent believes that the high concentrations of endorphins, the body's natural anesthetics, should be fully effective in the mother's body. He logically argues that when a woman is given painkillers and analgesics, her endorphins are cut off, depriving her of the benefit of natural pain relief.

Dr. Odent's clinic in Pithiviers, France, where he pioneered his natural birthing techniques, became a center for those seeking to change opinions and practices in childbirth.

Dr. Odent believes that there should be music, soft furniture and a relaxed atmosphere during labor. A woman going into labor should be allowed to sit, walk, stand, eat and drink, and do whatever she wants. Women should not be hindered in any way and can assume the position that is most comfortable for them at any stage of childbirth. Left to their own devices, many women assume a position on all fours, which seems to ease the pain. Later in birth, many stand up or half squat to allow gravity to help them, a natural thing practiced by most primitive tribes.

Odent encourages the supported squatting position, in which he or the woman's partner stands behind her, taking her weight under her armpits and upper arms and allowing her to bend her knees and place her weight on her partner's arm.

Dr. Odent believes birthing pools, which he now uses for many home water births, should be viewed primarily as a means of pain relief. The birth itself does not have to take place underwater, although Dr. Odent likes to put the baby in the water of the bath if this is the case. There appears to be no evidence that an underwater birth is dangerous for the baby as long as the heads are immediately removed from the water.

The methods of Dr. Odent have always had low episiotomy, forceps and cesarean section rates. The supported squatting position is the one that prevents severe perineal tears during childbirth. Since the mother was in an upright position when the baby came out, she remains sitting upright with the umbilical cord still intact and the baby lying on her lap.

The baby immediately smells the mother's skin and this is believed to be important for the baby to start breastfeeding. Within a few seconds, most mothers instinctively pick up the baby and place him or her on the breast. Neither partner needs to be instructed to wrap their own body and arms around the mother and baby. Everyone will do what comes naturally in these very personal moments.

Yoga based methods

This doesn't just apply to those who already practice yoga. During childbirth, a woman should focus her attention on being completely one with what is happening to her. Through yogic methods she is able to control her consciousness according to her capacity and tolerance, so that she can sometimes distract herself from the contractions and sometimes become fully involved in them. She can use meditation and chanting with the support of spiritual yoga group participation.

Practitioners in yoga methods believe that a woman can cope with childbirth in a mature and calm manner. Yogic birth education helps in the belief that a woman has the ability to create or destroy her own pain and joy during birth.