Fernand Lamaze (; 1891–1957) was a French

obstetrician Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a surgi ...

, most famous as the popularizer of psychoprophylaxis, a method of childbirth preparation and

pain management Pain management is an aspect of medicine and health care involving relief of pain (pain relief, analgesia, pain control) in various dimensions, from acute and simple to chronic and challenging. Most physicians and other health professionals pr ...

that bears his name (the

Lamaze technique The Lamaze technique, also known as the psychoprophylactic method or simply Lamaze, began as a prepared childbirth technique. As an alternative to medical intervention during childbirth, it was popularized in the 1950s by French obstetrician Dr. ...

Career

Lamaze visited the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

in 1951. There, he observed a birth using psychoprophylaxis, which had been developed primarily by Soviet psychotherapist I.Z. Velvovskii of

Kharkov Kharkiv ( uk, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest city and municipality in Ukraine.

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. Based on

Ivan Pavlov Ivan Petrovich Pavlov ( rus, Ива́н Петро́вич Па́влов, , p=ɪˈvan pʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕ ˈpavləf, a=Ru-Ivan_Petrovich_Pavlov.ogg; 27 February 1936), was a Russian and Soviet experimental neurologist, psychologist and physiol ...

's theory of

conditioned response Classical conditioning (also known as Pavlovian or respondent conditioning) is a behavioral procedure in which a biologically potent stimulus (e.g. food) is paired with a previously neutral stimulus (e.g. a triangle). It also refers to the learni ...

, psychoprophylaxis strove to eliminate the pain of childbirth through education about the physiological process of labor and delivery, through the trained relaxation response to

uterine contractions Uterine contractions are muscle contractions of the uterine smooth muscle that occur during the menstrual cycle and labour. Uterine contractions occur throughout the menstrual cycle in the non-pregnant state and throughout gestation. Throughout ...

, and through patterned breathing intended to both increase oxygenation and interfere with the transmission of pain signals from the

uterus The uterus (from Latin ''uterus'', plural ''uteri'') or womb () is the organ in the reproductive system of most female mammals, including humans that accommodates the embryonic and fetal development of one or more embryos until birth. The uter ...

to the

cerebral cortex The cerebral cortex, also known as the cerebral mantle, is the outer layer of neural tissue of the cerebrum of the brain in humans and other mammals. The cerebral cortex mostly consists of the six-layered neocortex, with just 10% consisting of ...

. Lamaze was so impressed by what he witnessed that after he returned to France, he devoted the rest of his life to promoting psychoprophylaxis.

Criticism

Lamaze has been criticized for being over-disciplinary and anti-feminist; " e disciplinary nature of Lamaze’s approach to childbirth is evident from

Sheila Kitzinger Sheila Helena Elizabeth Kitzinger MBE (29 March 1929 – 11 April 2015) was a British natural childbirth activist and author on childbirth and pregnancy. She wrote more than 20 books and had a worldwide reputation as a passionate and committed ...

’s description of the methods he deployed while working in a Paris clinic during the 1950s. According to

, Lamaze consistently ranked the women’s performance in childbirth from 'excellent' to 'complete failure' on the basis of their 'restlessness and screams.' Those who 'failed' were, he thought, 'themselves responsible because they harbored doubts or had not practiced sufficiently,' and, rather predictably, 'intellectual' women who 'asked too many questions' were considered by Lamaze to be the most 'certain to fail.'"

References

External links

French government site with biographical informationLamaze site
1891 births 1957 deaths People from Mirecourt French obstetricians Natural childbirth advocates {{France-med-bio-stub