Offensive
Dr. Michel Odent owes many women an apology for his offensive comments regarding maternal-infant bonding:Women who choose to have Caesarean sections may be jeopardising their chances of bonding properly with their babies, a leading childbirth expert has claimed.In his zeal to criticize women who don't follow his "prescription" for birth, Dr. Odent has reached a new low.
Obstetrician Michel Odent said that undergoing the planned procedure prevents the release of hormones that cause a woman to 'fall in love' with her child.
Speaking at a conference in Cambridge, Dr Odent warned that both C-sections and artificial inductions with drugs somehow interfere with the natural production of the hormone oxytocin.
The French expert said: "Oxytocin is the hormone of love, and to give birth without releasing this complex cocktail of love chemicals disturbs the first contact between the mother and the baby.
"The hormone is produced during sex and breastfeeding, as well as birth, but in the moments after birth, a woman's oxytocin level is the highest it will ever be in her life, and this peak is vital.
"It is this hormone flood that enables a woman to fall in love with her newborn and forget the pain of birth."
He added: "What we can say for sure is that when a woman gives birth with a pre-labour Caesarean section she does not release this flow of love hormones, so she is a different woman than if she had given birth naturally and the first contact between mother and baby is different."
Let's take his comments to their logical conclusion. If C-sections blunt the secretion of oxytocin (he provides no evidence for this), and that interferes with bonding, surely women who adopt (and therefore don't secrete oxytocin at the time of birth) must not be able to bond with their children at all. So, Dr. Odent, do adoptive mothers fail to bond with their babies? Do adoptive mothers have impaired relationships with their children?
Dr. Odent's comments are scientifically absurd, but more importantly, they are emotionally cruel. Of course, that is what you would expect from a movement that places such a high value on a self constructed sense of superiority.
Labels: philosophy
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