Michel Odent

Michel Odent (born 1930) is a French obstetrician and influential advocate of physiologic childbirth. Trained as a surgeon, he later worked in obstetrics and became known for promoting approaches that support undisturbed labor and birth. Odent helped popularize water birth and the use of birthing pools, emphasizing the role of environment, privacy, and maternal hormones in the birth process. He has written widely for both professional and general audiences, including *Birth Reborn* and *The Farmer and the Obstetrician*. Through his clinical work and publications, he has contributed to international debates about medical intervention, midwifery, and the conditions that foster safe, satisfying births.