Still from Max Ploquin’s birth video archive

[May 2020 Update: The link to the original version of this video that Visualizing Birth had for years is unfortunately no longer available. I am currently researching the matter and hope to find a new copy to post. If you know of a link to the original, please send it to me here! In the meantime, I found this version, which is slightly cropped but still shows the entire birth scene]

In this incredible video, a young French woman gives birth, attended by her partner and several hospital staff members. She is so joyful and ecstatic, playful even, as she opens up, allowing her baby to crown. Breathing deeply and calmly, her entire body is involved as she births her baby. She is youthful and full of life, and it is a beautiful moment when her baby emerges and she lifts it up close to her chest. It is clear that this woman is in a peaceful place and not afraid of the birth process, allowing the natural physiological process to take its course.

I actually saw this video over a year ago, when pregnant with Montserrat. It was very empowering for me at the time, and I watched it over and over. I have not previously posted it, however, because I do not know any of its source information. I do not know who this beautiful woman is, nor how to go about contacting her to let her know that I’ve posted the video [Please see update to this post, as well as Valérie Dupin’s comment below]. However, I think that it is such an important video to see, and so have decided to post it today, copying it over from mybestbirth. I do wish that there was no music added, since the woman’s own voice and breath are so helpful to listen to, and I would encourage others to focus on the sounds she makes.

Other pregnant women can meditate on this video, breathing along with the woman, and using it to visualize the births of their own babies. These images remind us that a woman’s experience of birthing her baby has the capacity to be one of joy, vitality and strength. As I’ve recently discussed in my post on using sports visualization to visualize birth, imagining the birth of our babies in this positive way could help us and actually impact how it is that our babies are ultimately born.

03/20/2012 UPDATE: I am grateful to Valérie Dupin, Co-President of the Association of Doulas in France, for informing me that the person responsible for filming this wonderful video is Dr. Max Ploquin, a French doctor who in the 1970s helped to pioneer the natural birth movement, advocating for women, babies and fathers. As Valérie states in her comment below, Dr. Ploquin used highly sensitive film so that women could give birth in the comfortable zone of dimmed light.