Michel Odent obituary | Childbirth

The pioneering French obstetrician Michel Odent, who has died aged 95, spent greater than 50 years passionately selling understanding of the pure physiology of childbirth. From the Sixties onwards, “energetic administration of labour”, utilizing synthetic oxytocin and different strategies, had dominated obstetric follow. Odent’s work flagged up its pitfalls, and provided another view.Daniela Drandić of the Worldwide Confederation of Midwives stated: “Within the Nineteen Seventies start was institutionalised and medicalised. Michel Odent reminded us that physiological processes throughout being pregnant and start ought to be revered, which was crucial as issues had gone too far within the different path. There wasn’t a lot discourse on the time and he confirmed us one other means.”Lots of the practices Odent championed at the moment are taken without any consideration: birthing swimming pools and home-like birthing centres are commonplace within the UK, for instance, and it’s broadly accepted {that a} mom ought to be capable of transfer round in labour and desires undisturbed time to bond along with her child.In 1962, Odent started working at Pithiviers state hospital, in a French city 50 miles south of Paris. He had skilled as a surgeon, however was occupied with obstetrics. When the director of the maternity unit stepped down, Odent took over, working the unit till 1985. He had learn the work of the French obstetrician Frédérick Leboyer and the Russian Igor Charkovsky, an exponent of water births, who had comparable concepts, however he additionally had the boldness to observe his personal instincts and observations. He championed squatting or standing to present start moderately than mendacity flat, having seen girls do that when he was working in Algeria, and he turned a standard supply suite right into a extra snug room, with cushions and blinds.Involved about girls’s decrease again ache in labour, he acquired an inflatable paddling pool, after which went on to put in a start pool in his unit. After the a hundredth start utilizing this methodology, he wrote a landmark paper, Start Underneath Water, for the medical journal The Lancet (1983) explaining how efficient it was at lowering ache. In 1982 the BBC introduced his strategies to a large viewers with a documentary, Start Reborn, in regards to the Pithiviers midwifery unit. It revealed a hushed, home-like maternity unit, with dimmed lights, the place girls in labour might transfer freely and really feel safe.Odent had an enormous respect for the six midwives on the unit, who impressed a few of his key concepts. He discovered {that a} lady in labour advantages from calm personal environment with only a single skilled midwife, who’s saying little and doing a repetitive activity comparable to knitting. It’s in these circumstances, Odent taught, that oxytocin is launched – the “love hormone” as he favored to name it – which stimulates uterine contractions. In a harshly lit, busy labour ward with a group of individuals scrutinising her, a lady in labour is more likely to really feel harassed, producing adrenaline, which inhibits manufacturing of oxytocin. Dimming the lights too was not some whimsical fad: it encourages the discharge of melatonin, a hormone that acts with oxytocin to facilitate start. These have been key insights. Janet Balaskas, who runs the Energetic Start Centre in London, stated: “We all the time knew that ‘nature is aware of finest’ nevertheless it was Odent who offered the ‘why’.”As information of Odent’s strategies unfold, pregnant girls from throughout Europe and the US bought in contact wanting to present start in Pithiviers, and, in response to one observer, midwives arrived within the little city “by the busload” to see his strategies first-hand. The variety of infants born every year on the unit quadrupled in Odent’s time, however he was starting to suppose that he may very well be extra helpful as a researcher and author and was a lot in demand as a speaker internationally.In 1985 he left Pithiviers and moved to London. He spent the subsequent 40 years there, researching, writing and selling his concepts. He additionally registered with the UK Common Medical Council and continued to help at residence births.Odent in his examine in Pithiviers hospital, 1983It was Odent’s profound perception that how you might be born and your wellbeing in “the primal interval” (from conception to your first birthday) have lifelong results. He arrange the Primal Well being Analysis Centre in London, and a database to collate epidemiological knowledge and analysis his theories. He was a prolific author, authoring quite a few articles and 17 books, in 22 languages. His ebook The Farmer and the Obstetrician (2002) is a name to arms, saying that simply as farming within the twentieth century had scant respect for nature, utilizing synthetic fertiliser and pesticides, so too has childbirth change into an “industrialised” process with its widespread use of caesarean part and synthetic hormones.Combining the roles of thinker and obstetrician, Odent rhapsodised about mom earth and the “cocktail of affection hormones” that precipitates pure start. He felt we manipulate nature at our peril.Odent may very well be controversial: for instance, in 2009 he really useful that fathers ought to keep out of the supply room in the event that they have been in any respect anxious in order to not disturb their companions. And he expounded theories in his later books that have been met with scepticism by some consultants, comparable to his linking of autism, anorexia and different psychological problems to synthetic induction of labour and caesarean sections.Born in Bresles, northern France, Michel was the elder son of Madeleine (nee Charpentier) and Paul Odent. His father labored for an area sugar manufacturing facility and his mom, who had a profound affect on his life, ran a nursery college and wrote poetry. He attended college in close by Clermont, biking 9 miles every means, earlier than transferring to Paris aged 18, to review medication on the Sorbonne College.Having skilled in surgical procedure, in 1958 Odent began two years of navy service in Algeria, the place the conflict for independence from France was going down. He labored in a hospital in Tizi Ouzou within the Kabylie area and, amongst different issues, witnessed a brand new approach for caesarean sections. After returning residence, Odent took a place as a surgeon in Pithiviers.In 1957 Odent married Nicole Toulat, with whom he had two kids, Sylvie and Christophe. They remained married however determined to separate. In 1983 he met Judy Graham, a British TV journalist, with whom he made his residence in Hampstead, north London, and had a son, Pascal, in 1985. After they separated, in 1997 he shaped a long-lasting relationship with Liliana Lammers, a doula, offering help round childbirth, and continued to reside in Hampstead along with her.Odent is survived by Liliana, Nicole, Sylvie and Pascal, 5 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. His son Christophe and youthful brother, Daniel, predeceased him. Michel Robert Fortuné Odent, obstetrician, creator and pure childbirth advocate, born 7 July 1930; died 19 August 2025