Nobody Is Asking the Right Question About the Odon Device

By Jen Crawford | Doula Trainer | Birth Professional | Ireland

They built a new device to pull babies out of women's bodies.

Called it progress. Called it gentle.

And I need to ask — gentle for whom?

What Is the Odon Device?

In 2005, an Argentinian car mechanic named Jorge Odon watched a YouTube video about removing a cork from a wine bottle using a plastic bag. He applied the same principle to childbirth.

The result is the Odon Device: a plastic inflatable sleeve inserted around a baby's head during the second stage of labour to assist birth. It is backed by the World Health Organisation. It has been described as the first new tool for assisted birth since forceps and the ventouse — instruments that have been in use for centuries.

Headlines have called it revolutionary. Innovative. Gentle.

And I think we need to stop and ask a much harder question.

Why Are We Still Inventing New Ways to Pull Babies Out?

Forceps. Ventouse. Now the Odon Device.

Three different tools. Three different centuries. One consistent pattern: every generation, we invent a new way to assist babies out faster. And every generation, we call it innovation.

But here is the question nobody in that boardroom seemed to ask:

Why are so many women arriving at the second stage of labour unable to birth their baby without intervention in the first place?

That question makes people uncomfortable. Good. It should.

The System Is Working Against Women

When we look honestly at the maternity care system in Ireland and internationally, a picture emerges.

Women are giving birth in hospitals designed around efficiency, not biology. They are frequently:

Induced with synthetic hormones that create contractions more intense than the body's own natural rhythms — without the endorphin build-up that helps women cope

Offered epidurals earlier than they might otherwise choose, because the induction-driven contractions are unmanageable

Monitored continuously, restricting their freedom to move, to change position, to follow their body's instincts

Subject to time limits on labour stages that have no basis in individual biology

Cared for by strangers — there is rarely continuity of care in the Irish maternity system

Given little or no continuous emotional support during labour

Each of these factors individually affects the course of labour. Together, they create what researchers have called an intervention cascade: one intervention leads to another, until a woman who began labour perfectly capable of birthing her baby finds herself needing assistance at the end.

And then we hand someone a new device and call it progress.

This is not a birth complication. It is a system complication.

Sometimes Assisted Birth Is the Right Choice

I want to be clear and honest about this.

Forceps, ventouse, the Odon Device — when they are genuinely needed, they save lives. Your baby's life. Your life.

If you had an assisted birth: you did not fail. Your body did not fail. You made the best decision available to you with the information and support you had in that moment. There is no blame here.

But when instrumental delivery rates keep rising year on year across the developed world, we are obligated to ask why. Because the answer cannot simply be: we need a better device.

The answer is: we need a better system.

What the Evidence Says Actually Helps

There is robust, peer-reviewed evidence — much of it from Cochrane systematic reviews — on what actually helps women birth their babies without assistance.

Upright and mobile positions during labour are associated with a shorter second stage and lower rates of instrumental delivery. Freedom of movement matters.

Continuous labour support — from a known, trusted person — is one of the most powerful interventions in maternity care. A Cochrane review by Hodnett and colleagues found that continuous support during labour reduces the likelihood of instrumental delivery, caesarean birth, and the use of pain medication, while improving women's overall experience of birth.

Water immersion during labour has been shown to reduce pain and intervention rates.

Waiting for the physiological urge to push, rather than being directed to push on a schedule, is associated with better outcomes for mother and baby.

Women who feel safe, unobserved, and unhurried birth more easily. This is not soft. This is science.

When a woman feels safe, oxytocin flows. When she feels observed, rushed, or afraid — adrenaline rises, oxytocin drops, and labour stalls.

The birth environment — who is in the room, how they speak, whether a woman feels in control of what is happening to her body — directly impacts her physiology.

We keep building devices for the end of that process.

We should be protecting the beginning.

The Case for Doula Support in Ireland

A doula does not pull babies out.

A doula creates the conditions for a woman to birth her baby.

Continuous doula support reduces the likelihood of instrumental delivery by up to 10%, according to Hodnett et al. in the Cochrane Review. Presence. Advocacy. A familiar face. Permission to move, to make noise, to take time.

That is the intervention we should be investing in.

In Ireland, access to continuous labour support is not guaranteed. Midwife shortages, shift rotations, and systemic pressures mean that many women labour largely alone, or with care providers they have never met. The doula fills that gap — and the evidence shows it matters.

Innovation in Birth Should Look Like This

The Odon Device may have its place. But real innovation in birth would look like this:

Continuity of midwifery care — the evidence for this is overwhelming, and yet most women in Ireland cannot access it. Doula support accessible to every family, not just those who can afford it. Freedom of movement in labour as a standard right, not a privilege. An end to routine induction without full informed consent. Consent at every stage, to every procedure. More time. More support. More trust in women's bodies.

Not a new device to assist babies out faster.

Women's bodies are not the problem.

Doula Training in Ireland with Jen Crawford

If you are a birth professional in Ireland who wants to understand the evidence, advocate for women within the system, and provide genuinely meaningful support — my doula training programme is designed for you.

I offer:

Birth and Postpartum Doula Training in Ireland — evidence-based, values-led training that covers physiological birth, the intervention cascade, informed consent, continuous labour support, and how to truly hold space for a woman in labour.

CPD Days for Birth Professionals — for midwives, doulas, and other birth workers who want to go deeper on the evidence, the system, and how to advocate effectively within it.

1:1 Coaching — for expectant parents who want to feel genuinely informed before they walk into that birth room, and for birth professionals ready to build practices rooted in evidence and values.

Visit jen-crawford.com to find out more.

The Answer Was Always at the Beginning

We keep looking for solutions at the end.

A new device. A faster extraction. A gentler pull.

But the answer was never at the end.

It was always at the beginning.

The woman who feels safe, informed, supported, and free to move — she is far less likely to need any of this.

Invest there.

Protect that.

Jen Crawford is a birth and postpartum doula trainer, life and business coach, and co-founder of DoulaCare Ireland. She offers doula training, CPD days and 1:1 coaching for birth professionals and families across Ireland. Find out more at jen-crawford.com

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