The Sounds, the Colours and the Scents
In 1976 we invented a room for labor and delivery that would help the pregnant woman to break the pre-conceived, often pessimistic, image of the childbirth.
We used colors, we stimulated relaxing with the music. The sounds, the colors and the smells are eletromagnetic waves.
The life rythm of man was, in the beginning, dictated by two factors beyond his control: night and day, darkness and light.
Night meant the stopping of activity. Man went inside his cave or tree, slept and waited for the day.
The day brought calm passivity and a diminishing of the basal metabolism and of the glandular secretions. Day brought activity, an increase of the basal metabolism and more glandular secretion, giving energy and incentive.
The colors associated with that ambiance are dark blue of the night sky, and the bright yellow of daylight.
On the birth room we have used yellow and orange, colors of activity; bright and dark blue, Nile blue, colors of relaxing and meditation, and the green of life. Why is blue relaxing? Man is a daytime animal that has to sleep at night. The yellow? Activity, the sun rises and man goes to work. For the owl, a nocturnal animal, it is just the opposite.
All those reactions are eletrochemical, provoking reactions in the eye’s retina, that are transmitted by the optical nerve, and from this go to the brain hormones, through serotonin liberation. This is inside each one of us.
Certain sounds are relaxing, like the sounds with the same rythm, the heart beat, for instance. If we get a newborn to listen to heart beats, he calms down.
Rocking from one side to the other, in a two-times beat – again the rythm of heartbeats – makes the person feel sucre (rock and roll!). Other sounds makes us feel excited, like war marches.
We encourage pregnant women to practice relaxing with music, that will be also used the moment of the birth.
We put white pillows on the floor, with material that stimulates touch.
The lights are all soft and indirect.
Our intention was to create an ambiance that would break the hospital image and would put the persons in contact with themselves.