- Mothers have become too reliant on the drugs used in labour, said doctor
- Dr Michel Odent claimed that this puts women's ability to give birth at risk
- Fewer women are able to produce the hormone oxytocin, doctor added
- This threatens ability to breastfeed and to give birth naturally, he said
By Jennifer Smith for MailOnline
Published: 02:42 EST, 24 May 2015 | Updated: 11:56 EST, 24 May 2015
Dr Michel Odent said women's ability to give birth naturally is under threat
Mothers are losing the ability to give birth naturally and breastfeed because their bodies have become too reliant on drugs used during labour, a leading doctor has claimed.
Dr Michel Odent believes women are at risk of losing the hormones needed to deliver children because they have been supplied by doctors via drips for so long.
The Frenchman, who championed the use of birth pools in hospitals, added that a lack of naturally produced hormones will also hinder breastfeeding.
Women are already enduring longer labours, with mothers giving birth between 2002 and 2008 taking on average two-and-a-half hours longer than those in the late 1950s.
In his new book Do We Need Midwives?, Dr Rodent said the research 'demonstrates that women are losing the ability to give birth.'
'That is the primary phenomenon... the number of women who give birth naturally is becoming insignificant,' he is reported as saying by The Sunday Times.
One of the major contributors to the decline is medical supply of the hormone oxytocin, he said.
The hormone is needed to go into labour and is also necessary when breastfeeding, with some in the past claiming it is the component which makes a mother fall in love with her child and bond with them from birth.
But with an increasing number of women depending on drips and Caesarean sections, Dr Odent said women's ability to produce the hormone by themselves is under threat.
'The human oxytocin system - the oxytocin, being the hormone of love, fundamental to birth and bonding, even in adulthood - is growing weaker.
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'The future of the human capacity to give birth is at risk,' Dr Odent added.
In the past he has come under fire to criticising the number of women who undergo Caesarean sections.
In 2006 Dr Odent controversially said the procedure stood in the way of mothers bonding with their babies in the same way as those who gave birth naturally.
'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.'
The doctor said vital hormones needed during childbirth and breastfeeding are becoming more difficult for women to produce naturally (file image)
Other leading midwives and doctors have in the past said the rate of women undergoing the procedure is too high.
In response NHS collected data in 2008, the Royal College of Midwives said the number was 'worryingly high.
'Women should be aware that a caesarean section is a major surgical procedure,' said general secretary designate, Cathy Warwick.
'There is clear evidence that some caesarean sections are unnecessary and put women and babies at risk.
'Coupled with this the birthrate is rising sharply, and midwife numbers are failing to keep pace, leaving them little time antenatally to discuss the birth and the available options with women.'
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Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3094813/Mothers-losing-ability-birth-naturally-breastfeed-babies-claims-doctor-blames-rise-C-sections-use-drugs.html#ixzz3b6YSepB2
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