HORMONES!
Check out these amazing, powerful, interconnected chemicals that we generate naturally to facilitate birth, bonding, and breastfeeding with our babies...and then, the ways that drugs interfere and inhibit them. This is no judgement. These are the facts.
The Pituitary Gland (care of Healthtap.com)
The Adrenal Glands (care of Healthtap.com)
Oxytocin, the *love* hormone
- associated with ejection reflexes (like sperm ejection, fetal ejection, placental ejection)
- released from pituitary gland
- descending baby stimulates the stretch receptors in mom, causing peak levels of oxytocin
- protects against hemorrhage and ensures postpartum contractions
- reduces stress
Endorphins *pleasure/transcendence*
- naturally occuring opiate, similar to morphine and heroine, works same brain receptors
- released from pituitary gland
- creates pleasure, euphoria, mutual dependency
- allows mom to reach an altered consciousness in an undisturbed birth
- in breastmilk, induces pleasure and mutual dependencey for mother and baby
Epinephrine *excitement/adrenoline*
- fight or flight hormones
- released from adrenal glands on kidneys
- released in response to fright, anxiety, hunger, cold, and excitement
- at birth, it activates the fetal ejection reflex
- rush of energy when it is time to push, mom gets upright and alert
- this hormone is implicated in instinctive mothering (who wants to mess with that?!)
- for baby, it protects against hypoxia/acidosis, and ensures baby is wide-eyed and alert at first contact with mom
Prolactin the *mothering* hormone
- major hormone in breastmilk synthesis
- activate mother's vigilence adn help put her baby's needs first
Synthetic Oxytocin (Syntocinon)
Anyone ever hear of Pitocin? This is synthetic oxytocin.
It doesn't crosses the blood/brain barrier, so when injected with Pitocin, the mom does not experience above-mentioned benefits of the *love hormone*. However, the body does believe the hormone is present, and thus ceases to the natural production of oxytocin, thereby increasing the chance of hemorrhage (that natural oxytocin prevents).
Epidurals
Epidurals have major effects on all of the above-mentioned hormones.
- INHIBITS endorphine production, thus restricting the natural shift in consciousness
- INHIBITS oxytocin production since mom's stretch receptors are numb and cannot trigger natural oxytocin
- No natural oxytocin, no natural ejection reflex, leading to increased second stage of labor.
- INHIBITS Prostagladnin F2 alpha (which makes uterus contractible).
One study showed mothers given epidurals spent less time with their babies in the hospital in inverse proportion to the dose of drugs they received during the second stage of labor. (lack of *love hormone* maybe?)
One study showed mothers with epidurals describe their babies as "more difficult to care for" one month after birth. (lacking that *mothering hormone* maybe?)
This hormone system is common to all mammals. For birth to proceed optimally, the mother must shift from her neocortex (rational) brain to her mammillian, or middle brain, also known as the limbic system. We as a society need to place some importance on this shift in consciousness and facilitate it.
I love this quote from a Dutch professor, G. Kloosterman,
"Spontaneous labour in a normal woman is an event marked by a number of processes so complicated and so perfectly attuned to each other than any interference will only detract from the optimal character."
These innate chemical reactions are so powerful when allowed to proceed on their own.
Let's trust in ourselves, and our natural, untapped potential.
Information from:
Ecstatic Birth, The Hormonal Blueprint of Labor by Sarah J. Buckley
First printed in Mothering Magazine, March-April 2002.
