Childbirth and Prevention of the Diseases of Civilisation

Abstract

“Inhibition of action” is a concept introduced by Laborit and could account for the genesis of what one commonly calls the diseases of civilisation. It corresponds to the only possible behaviour when one cannot face an adverse experience either by struggling or by fleeing. After a medically controlled birth, the newborn baby is usually in a highly pathogenic situation. The effect of this situation is especially powerful at an age when the hypothalamo limbic system is still establishing its set point level. Close contact between mother and baby after a physiological delivery is an important element of the prevention of most of the diseases of civilisation, which are the first disregulations of the hypothalamo limbic system. They are so common nowadays that we have to face a real collective and cultural disorder