Today's modern world wants to be fast, easy and pre-planned. In developed countries, this is how controlled, pre-determined caesarean sections have become fashionable. According to obstetrician-gynecologist Michael Odent, however, with this haste, the fetus is deprived of important hormones, which are only produced during labor, reports Anna Kismarty on the vasarnap.ku portal.
Do we need nannies? What is the future of human parenthood? What will happen if we gradually replace the natural hormones that control physiological mechanisms with drugs? Is homo sapiens expected to evolve in relation to the way newborns are born? Michel Odent, a world-renowned obstetrician and researcher, seeks answers to such and similar questions in in his book, now published in Hungarian. The 92-year-old doctor explores the future of childbirth with his broad, interdisciplinary approach.
Odent started practicing as an obstetrician-gynecologist in 1953. At the time, caesarean section was considered a risky procedure, as they believed that childbirth should be as it was in past centuries. At the time, there was no oxytocin or constant monitoring. The midwives did not follow a strict protocol, but prioritized the needs of the laboring woman. Accordingly, women gave birth to their children in a small, dark room. In a peaceful environment, midwives mostly stayed in a corner and intervened only when the women needed them. The doctors were only present when the baby was born. These natural, peaceful births rarely involved complications. They were not planned in advance, not accompanied by artificial lights, haste and unnecessary adrenaline. According to Odent, this is precisely why it is important to reinterpret labor and artificially induced cesarean sections.
According to the specialist, although many people find it very convenient to give birth at a pre-planned time, the needs of babies are completely different from this. During natural labor, a lot of hormones are produced, which they will need in their later, mature life. If there is no labor, the hormones that make the babies' lungs ready for the outside world are not produced, for example.
According to the obstetrician-gynecologist, it's time to ask the most important questions. Why is it that some women have a hard time giving birth while other mothers have an easier time? Why don't hospitals pay more attention to the needs of women and babies? In an ever-accelerating world, how much damage does the "industrialization" and acceleration of childbirth cause?
The answer is obvious: the primary consideration in the hospital protocol should be that labor is an important prenatal period in the life of the newborn.
As well as adapting the medical protocol to the needs of the mother and the child. Odent emphasized: In the age of pharmacological aids, easy and safe cesarean sections are more important to the medical profession than the fact that neither the mother nor the fetus gets access to certain hormones that play a huge role, for example, in the acquisition of socialization skills, or in the development of smell.
That is why the fundamental question of our future is whether modern medicine will really be for women, children, and the next generation, or whether pre-planned, labor-free cesarean sections will remain fashionable in the age of general haste. Will humanity finally realize that becoming a mother and the birth of a child - as the greatest miracle from God - cannot and should not be rushed.
Source: vasarnap.hu/Kismarty Anna
(Credit Image: Getty Images)
