Obstetrician Michel Odent suggests that we’re moving further and further away from natural childbirth because we’re simply too bright:
So thinking too much hinders birth?
Yes. The neocortex is highly developed in humans ‐ it allows us to do mathematics, use language, answer questions… It is the thinking brain. But in some situations, neocortical activity can suppress vital activity in our primitive brain. A woman in labour needs to be protected against all possible stimulation of her thinking brain, because giving birth is the business of primitive brain structures. It is a reduction of neocortical activity that makes birth possible in humans. …From what we know about childbirth before the Neolithic revolution, it seems that women knew to protect themselves against neocortical stimulation – they would isolate themselves to give birth. Today, labouring women are culturally conditioned to think that they are unable to give birth by themselves, that a partner or an expert must be there. The problem is, they are unable to “let go” with others watching them.
So the result?
It has become culturally unacceptable to create the conditions that encourage a fast and easy birth, so right now it is impossible to balance the two. So we have to consider the implications: for how long can we go on not using such a key physiological function? We understand – particularly in the age of epigenetics – that when physiological functions are underused they can become weaker from generation to generation. I cannot see how we can stop this process. The most probable result is a future in which most people are born by caesarean section.
And if doctors become unavailable? Will we even be able to have a “normal” birth?
