By Michel Odent 

World famous French obstetrician Michel Odent gives us urgent new reasons to rediscover the basic needs of women in labour and after birth. He believes that for a positive birth and breastfeeding experience women need privacy and as with all mammals, the newborn baby needs the skin and the smell of the mother and her breast.

In many societies today, most women give birth without relying on the release of a complex cocktail of 'love hormones'. Some give birth via caesarean section, while others use drugs that block the release of these natural substances.

2008 edition