[To give birth: in the past and today]

Abstract

Nowadays in industrialized regions, the majority of childbirths take place in a hospital under high medical and paramedical supervision; this renders the rate of perinatal events very low. This obstetrical safety progressively developped through a practice that, at times, was studded with strange recommendations as well as ingenious concepts. The progress of Medicine and the emancipation of Woman deeply modified the approach to child delivery and influence the importance of its different actors. The current tendency towards a "more natural delivery" may be stepping away from the security of childbirth in a hospital setting.