Hormonal physiology describes the healthy functioning of our hormonal systems. My new report Hormonal Physiology of Childbearing provides scientific evidence and detail about these processes in pregnancy, labour, birth and postpartum, including the impacts of common maternity-care interventions on these systems.
Our childbearing hormones are critical to actually making labour and birth happen! Beginning in the final weeks and days – and likely hours– before the natural (physiological) onset of labour, our hormone systems prepare us for an efficient labour and birth, help with labour pain and stress; ensure a safe passage for our babies and, after it is all over, give us feelings of reward and pleasure as we meet our newborns for the first time.
But the benefits of physiologic childbearing – by which I mean, “childbearing conforming to healthy biologic processes”- don’t end with that after-birth glow. The hormones that make birth happen also prepare us for breastfeeding, with these preparations beginning even before labour starts. In addition, our hormonal physiology, including the hormones oxytocin and prolactin, continues to support milk production and release right through lactation. Oxytocin and prolactin are even present in breastmilk, bestowing calming, connecting effects on our babies as they suckle.
Another critical finding from the report is the important role of these hormones for bonding and attachment. In all mammals – those species that suckle their young—hormonal physiology supports and rewards the dedicated care that mammalian mamas give to their newborns. In fact, all of the hormone systems that are discussed in the report- oxytocin, beta-endorphins, norepinephrine and prolactin- are involved in maternal-infant attachment, which is a critical process to ensure the best care and safest upbringing, which helps the species to survive.
These hormonal supports are also active in human mothers. When we interact with our babies- hold, carry, touch, talk to, breastfeed- we are rewarded with the release of oxytocin, beta-endorphins and prolactin, which give us pleasure by activating the dopamine-related pleasure centres in our brains. The more pleasure we get from interacting, the more we want to be with our babies, which benefits their health and development.
These pleasure and reward systems can be powerfully activated in women, as in other mammals, by the birth-related peaks of oxytocin and other hormones, giving us the head-start that maximizes pleasure and dedicated infant care into the future. (See my discussion of “biologic bonding” in the report.) If we miss these peaks, we may need some extra assistance to get these systems flowing. Lots of touch, carrying, contact and nursing our babies will activate these systems, and benefit our babies as well.
To find out more, and to see the scientific research that describes these processes, please look at the whole report, which is available in full for free online here . Sections 3.1.4 , 4.1.4 and 5.1.4 describe hormonal physiology after birth and you can also search the document for any words of interest.
We also have some fabulous infographics for women and care providers and a booklet describing hormonal physiology for parents.
Wishing you all power peace and pleasure for yourselves and in your work with childbearing.
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[…] feelings of security, safety, and happiness directly effects our birth experience and outcomes. Dr Sarah Buckley’s work on the Hormonal Physiology of Childbirth is game changing and proof that intervention, fear, withholding natural pain management, and the way […]