EP85: Michel Odent on Becoming Bilingual in Intuition and Science, Learning to Phrase New Questions, and the Socialization of Birth

Michel Odent, MD, is a French obstetrician trained as a general surgeon known for his tireless research on how environmental factors present during pregnancy and birth affect babies, children, and our communities. He is the founder of the  Primal Health Research Centre and authored the first articles on the initiation of lactation and the use of birthing pools. He has authored 15 books and continues to publish cutting edge research.  What He Shares: Why birth is an important subject not only for birth workers, but for all people interested in the future of our species. Why the period of birth is a critical period in a person's life The inability to study the long-term, non-specific affect of modern pregnancy and birth practices Exploring the changes in Homo sapiens resulting from birthing practices What You'll Hear: How birthing hormones affect our biological programing Understanding the needs of a laboring person Why the microbiome of a newborn baby affects a their lifelong health How the future of our species is being modified based on birth environments Discovering the correlation between birth choices and children's behavior Developing appropriate questions around new pregnancy and birth practices Improving research ability to answer unknowns The difficulty of understanding the long term risk factors of birthing choices Prioritizing the development of new research questions Why pregnancy is not the best time to educate yourself on these issues Expanding our view beyond the individual choices to the medical establishment Becoming bilingual in the languages of intuitive knowledge and scientific research Exploring how making birth a social event altered the fetal ejection reflex How technological advancements have altered birth