The good stress of being born
Being born seems to be a terrible and dangerous ordeal. The human foetus is squeezed through the birth canal for several hours, during which the head sustains considerable pressure, and the infant may be deprived of oxygen if the placenta or umbilical cord is compressed too much. Then, the neonate is delivered from the warm, dark, sheltered environment of its mother's womb, often into a cold, bright hospital room. The concept that human birth can be traumatic and distressful for the mother and the newborn baby is well established. Freud called birth 'the first experience of anxiety and thus the source and prototype of. .anxiety' followed by other psychoanalysts who claimed that the trauma of being born also triggered neurosis and depression in adult life. The French obstetrician Fr ed erick Leboyer claimed in his book Birth without violence, published in 1975, that hospital deliveries were too technical, forcing the foetus to be born by compression and forceps. Instead he advocated what he called 'soft deliveries' in dark rooms with minimal intervention. He maintained that the newborn infant should be placed at its mother's breast instead of being immediately separated from her and handled by a midwife or a paediatrician, who cleared its throat and smacked its feet or buttocks to stimulate breathing.
Acta paediatrica