school of medicineduring world war ii his family moved to megve a french village near switzerland where he and his older brother maurice changed their name to leboyer to avoid detection as jews by the occupying nazisafter the war mr leboyer moved back to paris where he worked in a hospital and then opened a private practice he claimed to have delivered more than 9000 babies using standard techniques and more than 1000 using his natural methodshe began questioning modern obstetrics in the late 1950s when through a mix of psychotherapy in france and spiritual guidance from a swami in india he was able he said to relive the trauma of his birth in which he was pulled out of his mother with forceps as she was pinned downhis reexperiencing of the trauma he said left him viewing the entire medical establishment with fresh eyes those of an infanthe often wrote from the babys perspective in birth without violence as he did in these lines of prose poetrymother oh my mother where are youwithout you where am iif you are gonei no longer existcome back come back to mehold me crush meso that i may beafter birth without violence was published mr leboyer stopped practicing medicine in part to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest he said and in part out of protestour society has come to an absurd point he told people magazine in 1976 we are living in an aberration i had to separate myself from it to save myself to save my sanityafter giving up his practice he dedicated himself to photography and film and wrote a number of books including loving hands a howto on baby massage and inner beauty inner light a guide to yoga for pregnant womenmr leboyer continued to criticize conventional childbirth into his 90s telling the guardian in 2011 that cesarean sections were a form of chickening out on the mothers part and that babies were still not receiving the proper attention in the delivery roommr leboyer is survived by his wife mieko yoshimura whom he met in london in the late 1990s while she was working at a bank they married in 2005 in what was the first marriage for both of them in addition to her and his nephew he is survived by a niece marion leboyernot having children was one of his greatest regrets he told the guardian in 2011to have children he said it is one of the greatest privileges that life holds