Doctor Michel Robert Fortuné Odent, MD

Dr. Michel Robert Fortuné Odent (MD) was born in France in 1930. He received medical education in Paris, graduating with the primary specialization in  surgery.

From 1956 to 1962, Dr. Odent practiced as a general surgeon, whose competence then included obstetric surgery. In the authoritative medical journal Lancet, he was named one of the last true general surgeons. During 1958-59, during the war in Algeria, Dr. Odent served as a military surgeon in the French army, assisting soldiers as well as civilians in urgent cases, including those related to childbirth.

In 1962-1985, Dr. Odent was a full-time surgeon and obstetrician-gynecologist at the multifunctional state hospital in Pittivié (France). He described this period of his life in the book “Revived Childbirth” (1984), which was translated into 13 languages ​​and is being reissued until now. Working together with six midwives and taking about a thousand births a year, Dr. Odent achieved excellent statistics with a low percentage of medical interventions. His approach has been highlighted in well-known medical editions (such as Lancet) and in television documentaries (Birth Reborn, BBC).

Dr. M.Odent introduced into practice a prenatal preparation of the evening choral singing in the maternity ward, where women were to give birth. An approach that focuses on the needs of woman and is based primarily on her resources, and not on medicines and medical procedures, today has become one of the most commonly used in modern world clinical obstetrics.

In the 1970’s, M.Odent introduced into practice the obstetric use pools for analgesia during childbirth and room with home furnish (as the physiology of childbirth requires rest and solitude).

Dr. M.Odent is the founder of the Primal Health Research Center, 1987, London, UK. The Primal Health Research Database (www.primalhealthresearch.com) includes an epidemiological work that explores the relationship between what happens in the initial period of life (from conception to the point when the child is a year), and health in the later life.

Dr. M.Odent is the author of the first articles on the initiation of breastfeeding in the first hour after birth, the first article on the use of swimming pools during childbirth, and the first article on “Theories of portal control of pain” in relation to obstetrics. In his book “Primary Health” (1986), Dr. Odent gave evidence that homeostasis was formed in the initial period: it is the phase when the basic adaptive systems of the organism undergo preparation, “given levels” for their work is established.

Now Dr. M.Odent investigates in what way human evolution can be under the influence of modern ways in which children are born.

In his works Dr.Odent invariably refers to the fact that the reduction of the activity of the cerebral cortex (neocortical inhibition) is the key to re-opening the basic needs of women in childbirth and creating conditions for a true “reflex of expulsion of the fetus” – in other words, it is impossible to help the physiological process (childbirth), but obstacles can be eliminated.

At the beginning of the 21st century, Dr. M.Odent has developed a program for conception preparation (“accordion-method”), which helps to minimize the content of fat-soluble toxins in the body of a woman until conception, during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

In 2010 and 2012, M.Odent held major world forums – conferences “Childbirth and Research of Primary Health”. The first Mid-Atlantic Forum took place in Las Palmas in the spring of 2010 (Gran Canaria, 1251 delegates, representing 41 professions from 35 countries). The Second Middle-Pacific Forum was held in Honolulu (the USA) in the fall of 2012. Dr. M.Odent is the author of 17 books published in more than 20 languages ​​of the world. Four of his books have been translated into Russian; two of them are in Ukrainian “Revived Childbirth” and “Caesarean section”. In the status of the invited professor Dr. M.Odent teaches at two universities: Lyons, France (the course “Evolutionary Biology and Medicine”) and the University of Concepcion, Chile (the course “Primary Health”). He is named Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Brazil.

Annually Dr. M.Odent performs at academic conferences, including the International Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ICOG).

Dr. M.Odent is the author and co-author of more than 100 scientific works. He is a co-author of the German scientific and methodological manual “Caesarean section” edited by prof. M. Stark (“Der Kaiserschnitt” 10) as well as a scientific observer in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Breastfeeding Medicine.