Dr frederick leboyer biography of william

And actually what is making births traumatic is not so much physical suffering as it is fear, nothing but fear. And this fear is going on with us all through life…. Thinking of the newborn as a person, and the persistence of that initial traumatic memory throughout life. He is screaming. They are killing someone! We must go and help! Perhaps Leboyer's conviction that childbirth needed to be made more gentle stemmed from his personal experience.

His own birth was traumatic, as his mother was forced to give birth during the First World War in dramatic conditions, with no anaesthetics. This story was the source of his lifelong fascination with childbirth, he said. In his writings, Leboyer didn't stop at denouncing what he had seen in the delivery room. He dedicated his life to coming up with innovations to make childbirth a more pleasant and memorable experience for all those involved - including the baby.

Perhaps his most important contribution to the field of obstetrics - for which he will go down in history - is his assertion that a baby has "rights" during birth, and that these rights must be taken into account as much as those of the mother. For Leboyer, ensuring these rights meant thinking about ways to make childbirth less destabilising for infants.

He is best known for his book, Birth Without Violence, which popularized gentle birthing techniques, in particular, the practice of immersing newborn infants in a small tub of warm water — known as a "Leboyer bath" — to help ease the transition from the womb to the outside world. He also advocated that a newborn be laid on its mother's stomach and allowed to bond, instead of being taken away for tests.

Leboyer graduated from the University of Paris School of Medicine.

Dr frederick leboyer biography of william

His own birth was traumatic and without anesthetics available, his mother had to be pinned down. Leboyer attributes his interest in birth to this experience. Leboyer is often mistaken as a proponent for water births. Although Leboyer's disciple, Michel Odent, is an enthusiastic supporter of water births, Leboyer himself is against the idea.

Making love is the sovereign remedy for anguish. Leboyer speaks at length about his philosophy of "birth without violence" in the documentary Giving Birth: Four Portraits. Leboyer died on 25 May at the age of Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects.

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