Oxytocin is the magical hormone that surges through us when we first fall for a new partner. Oxytocin entrances us into a lovestruck high where food and sleep become secondary to gazing into the eyes of our beloved. In new relationships the initial oxytocin rush can last for several months and sometimes up to three years. Oxytocin is also released when we make love or share an intimate, juicy moment such as a succulent meal over candlelight.

This hormone also shepards birthing women through labor bringing on contractions along with pain relieving endorphins and an altered state of bliss that ultimately sends them head over heals into the greatest love possible; a mother’s love for her child. In the first few moments after birth women receive the largest rush of oxytocin that they will ever experience in their lifetime. Oxytocin continues to surge between mom and baby each time the baby is at the breast cultivating bonding and attachment that lays the foundation for our capacity to love.

The love hormone opens us to vulnerability and is thus timid requiring the right environment and encouragement to come out and play. Oxytocin peaks at night in darkness and quiet. It is able to surge when we feel loved and safe.

Synthetic oxytocin, known as Pitocin in the United States, reigns as the most common medical intervention in childbirth for use in induction or augmentation of labor. Pitocin is also administered routinely in hospitals directly following a baby’s birth as a means to help the uterus contract and to avoid hemorrhage. (The overuse of Pitocin in American hospitals and the risks associated will be the focus of a later blog).

Pitocin, or synthetic oxytocin, does not behave the same as the real stuff that our bodies naturally produce. While Pitocin can bring labor on and increase the intensity of contractions, it does not give us the uber loving, feel good, blissed out aspects that our own oxytocin does. The reason being, Pitocin cannot cross our blood-brain barrier and reach our neuron receptors, pituitary gland and endocrine system in the way that our own oxytocin does.

Women in labor can maintain or increase their own oxytocin levels to support the labor process in many ways before resorting to Pitocin. Below is a list that I share with my childbirth clients:

Physical/Emotional Ways to Increase Oxytocin

• Sensuous touch

• Eye gazing and kissing with your partner

• Nipple stimulation

• Orgasm

• Sex in any form produces oxytocin (avoid inserting anything vaginally once the water has broken)

• Deep relaxation

• Laughter, joy, happiness, gratitude

• Nonverbal communication

Environmental Factors to Increase Oxytocin

• Privacy

• Feeling of safety and comfort

• Darkness

• Silence

Oxytocin’s Antgagonists: Things to Avoid During Labor

• Adrenaline in mom or anyone else in the room

• Bright light

• Language, especially asking questions

• Feeling observed (including cameras)

• Distraction from labor process

• Perceived possible danger, or not feeling safe

In general think of your birth setting in the same way you would think of a setting in which you make love as the birth of a baby is the ultimate culmination of our sexual energy.

French physician, Michel Odent, is a pioneer in research on oxytocin, childbirth and bonding.  See his website here:  http://www.wombecology.com/

photo credit:  healthjockey.com