Confession time. I'm totally hooked on Michel Odent. No worries, it's not a Fatal Attraction kind of obsession, it's a birth obsession. Because everything that comes out of this obstetrician's mouth is so birth-sexy it's hard for me not to crush madly on him.
I was just watching the trailer of "The Face of Birth," a powerful film that's coming in 2012 about the state of maternity care in Australia (did you know Australia is in jeopardy of having no midwives soon? It's astounding!) and they interviewed Michel Odent like he is interviewed in so many films including BOLD5 Honoree's "The Business of Being Born."
I always swoon when he talks about oxytocin - the love hormone - and shutter when he urges us to consider if we keep doing interventions in childbirth, if we keep encouraging pitocin (synthetic oxytocin) on pregnant mamas what is going to happen? What will happen to our capacity to love? He tells us in "The Face of Birth" that the number of women releasing the cocktail of hormones that are released in a natural birth is approaching zero.
Yes, zero.
Michel - if he doesn't mind me being so BOLD :) - has this capacity to tell us the truth, make it sound sexy and foul all in one sentence, and then tell us, as he does at the end of "The Face of Birth" trailer that birth must be a topic not just for mothers, pregnant women, fathers..."it is a topic for all those interested in the future of humanity."
Abso-BOLD-lutely.
This summer I've been in bed alot with Michel, reading his new book "Childbirth in the Age of Plastics" - a book that tells the story of how interventions in childbirth and the growth of plastics have paralleled and why this is alarming. I'm always turned on by his ability to be so eloquent and truthful about childbirth today. He is not angry; he is passionate. He is not brutally attacking; he is a peacemaker carrying an important message.
When I close his books I can hear him whisper: listen deeply people of this earth...honor childbirth for the act it is no matter what your birth choice...stop making birth jokes because birth is no joke. How could the future of humanity be a joke?
He is BOLD.
Guess that's why I have a crush on Michel Odent.
4 comments:
I couldn't agree with you more, Karen. Odent has had so many important things to say for so many years. I didnt know about his new book, but cant wait to get it.
you and the rest of the Midwife community!!! Michel is our man... or should I say "our" Obstetrician... if only his colleges would listen to him... as profoundly as we women do! Keep talkin Michel...we LOVE you. Wow I just got an oxytocin rush..love works!Peace Deb Puterbaugh
Couldn't agree more, he has been a constant voice over the years reinforcing the fact that women are actually on the right path when they listen to their heart, when they follow the strength of their bodies. Everyone who is interested in the future of humanity should definitely be interested in the future of birth. Have you seen the movie 'Guerilla midwife'? Illustrates this perfectly. Thanks for a great blog post, will look to get the book.
Oh, I should add that while I LOVE Michel Odent I did feel his recent book was actually dense and those special nuggets were buried at times. But they were there and I did learn alot!
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