Abstract

Many women prepare actively for childbirth by learning psychoprophylaxis. Many obstetricians welcome the patient’s cooperation but wonder if psychoprophylaxis really helps. Others fear that concepts of which they are uncertain and which challenge the traditionally authoritarian role of doctors and midwives could make their care of the patient less successful. Although the movement for ‘natural childbirth’ may provide a protest against the impersonal and rigid management of labour, it is based on a positive feeling among women that childbirth should be an enriching experience for the parents, and it aims to provide benefits that also appeal to doctors.