Towards Salutogenetic Birth Space

How can we improve the birth space to protect the normal physiological birth; how do we enable, preserve and promote it? The place where childbirth takes place, including the persons in this space, affects a woman’s well-being (she feels safe, connected, relaxed or scared, strained or endangered) and the way she responds as an incarnate being and also influences the course of childbirth. According to the effects of the place of giving birth, we distinguish between pathogenetic—expe-rienced by the woman giving birth as dangerous, even hostile—and salutogenetic effects with “birthing shelter” characteristics. Modern findings of different disci-plines (physiology, architecture, neuroscience, social and evolutional anthropology and culturology) contribute to our understanding of the complexity of childbirth, the needs of the woman and her baby and lead to maternity hospitals being designed as places of support for the holistic health of both; they also present basic recommendations for transforming maternity hospitals into salutogenetic birth places. We present changes that are taking place in the design of birth spaces and research results that are encouraging, supporting birth physiology at its best.