Michel Odent on fathers in the delivery room

This article has garnered quite a lot of attention lately. In it, French obstetrician and natural birth and midwifery advocate Michel Odent purportedly claims that the father's presence in the delivery room is detrimental to the birth process. His comments seem quite incendiary and have a lot of natural birth advocates up in arms. Home birth adversaries have latched onto the article in an attempt to discredit Odent has being a stodgy traditionalist with sexual issues and anxieties.

Odent's comments in this article are very bold - too bold, in fact. It is important to note that this article, published in a sensationalist UK newspaper, does not accurately reflect Odent's opinion on the subject. Although the author did speak with Odent during the writing of the piece, the quotes are not directly attributable to Odent himself. In fact, Odent has responded to queries about his comments by email:

About the pages in Daily Mail, first I was not the author of the article. It was written by a journalist after an interview on the phone. Also it is probable that people just read the sensational title. In fact I have never said that men 'should not be at the birth of their child'.

Warmest regards
Michel

As a fan and student of Michel Odent for many years I am familiar with his theories on the effect of the father's presence at birth. His thoughts on the matter were published in a 1999 Midwifery Today Article, "Is the Participation of the Father at Birth Dangerous? It is important for critics and supporters alike to actually understand Odent's position before taking up sides with or against him.

Baby mix-ups

Yet another reason to consider home birth: Hospital Sued After Baby Switch

"Sitting in her hospital room in Marion, Ill., 17-year-old Kassie Hopkins knew something was wrong when she looked at the newborn officials told her she had given birth to a day before.

Mary Jo Bathon had the same feeling but left Heartland Regional Medical Center with the hospital's assurance that the baby she had was her son. She headed home to Pinckeyville, an hour away, making a stop to buy baby supplies.

But in fact, hospital workers had inadvertently switched the babies."

To beat all, when the hospital realized the mistake (according to the article), they left a message on one of the mother's answering machines, specifically "asking her to return the baby and retrieve her real son". Not that there's anything actually appropriate to say in that situation. Just, wow.

Such mix-ups are not a rare occurrence, though fortunately few of these reports are from American hospitals.

Well, here I am.

I've been entertaining the idea of a professional blog for some time now and finally decided to take the plunge. A dear friend recently pointed out that I have always been a writer, and I always have something to say, and just maybe there's someone out there who is interested in hearing.

I was trying to think of a good way to start this blog off but just haven't found it yet. I thought maybe the "5 things you would never guess about me", but I can't think of 5. I'll keep thinking.

I will take this opportunity to plug my new website: nashvillemidwife.com. It is a work in progress, as I switch over from the oldy-but-goody HTML tables to the supposedly easier style sheets. I published the FAQ last night and the summary of home birth safety studies today . I must admit that, being as familiar as I am with the body of research, I was actually surprised that the list boiled down to 35 pro-home birth studies to just 3 against (none applicable to low-risk planned home births with trained midwives). Are there others out there I'm missing? If so, please send them my way.