A pioneer in the childbirth movement for 30 years, Michel Odent focuses on birth and breastfeeding and suggests some startling conclusions. The Nature of Birth and Breastfeeding has as its premise that in order to gain a truer understanding of the human experience, we must examine the way other mammals function during birth, breastfeeding, and parenting. Odent points out some habitual procedures which becloud the approaches to childbirth in Western society. On the one hand, privacy and minimal intervention are key to the ideal birth environment, yet hospitals and the advent of high-tech obstetrics often dictate the opposite, with a result of higher cesarean and morbidity rates.

Odent uncovers another irony--the proven need of mother and infant to receive support for an extensive period of breastfeeding may actually be endangered by the nuclear monogamous family structure. The necessity of allowing women to follow their instincts during labor, birth and breastfeeding is documented by Odent's studies of innate childbirth reactions in various cultures and traditions. The author successfully describes the medical, physiological, social, and emotional rationale behind the need to follow nature's design more closely. Expectant parents, childbirth professionals, psychologists, and all those concerned with our kinship to Mother Earth will find this a provocative and visionary book, which challenges many of our accepted social policies. With The Nature of Birth and Breastfeeding we are closer to the day when, as Dr. Odent puts it the cesarean section will become a rare and wonderful rescue operation, and the now-common terms such as support, assistance, and coaching may find themselves outdated.