Hormonal Stages of Birth
Clinical Research done by Dr Sarah Buckley
Birth is a hormonal conversation.
This conversation is started, in part, by the baby's body. Releasing cortisol to a level to indicate to the mother's body that the baby is ready for the outside world.
Natural Oxytocin, the love and safety hormone, that is produced in the brain of the mother, also plays its part. If the baby is ready, but the world is not safe, the baby will stay where it is safe, in the womb. When the mother's body is in a relaxed, safe and loved stage, the uterus has been sensitised to oxytocin and so will begin to work. Slowly at first.
Birth is a positive feedback loop. As oxytocin in produced, the uterus works and builds up lactic acid. When the lactic acid comes to a certain level, the uterus pauses and oxytocin builds up and up until it signals the uterus to work again. As more oxytocin is produced, endorphins and dopamine is increased to help the woman enter an altered state as this massive life event is unfolding.
The mother's body has known pregnancy for 9 months. Never in any stage of life, does the body change so significantly over such a short period of time. The body needs the feedback loop of hormones to continue after birth, as the separation from baby and mother begins. Removing baby from mother at this critical stage creates a hormonal gap.
It should also be noted that synthetic oxytocin does not cross the blood-brain barrier and so cannot create the feel-good effect and trigger endorphins and dopamine in the way that the body's oxytocin produced by the hypothalamus does. Epidurals stop the dopamin and endorphins that help women enter altered states. A visual summary of the clinical research carried out by Dr Sarah Buckley