I have been doing a lot of research on what I thought were several different topics until last fall when I realized they are all pieces of the same puzzle.  I was elated.  But this past spring I realized those topics were only the edges of a bigger picture when I started learning about Oxytocin.  (ok-si-toh-suhn)

Then earlier this week I learned more about the role of  Oxytocin in the birth process, beyond that of inducing contractions, initiating lactation, and promoting bonding.

It was of immense interest to learn how Oxytocin levels are suppressed, sometimes severely, in many birth events due to pain medications & various interventions being used.  The greater the intervention, the lower the production & release of Oxytocin. 

This poses quite a problem because Oxytocin in the fetus cues GABA to invert its normal excitory function of neurons, (the opposite of what happens with adults) to induce a sedated effect on the fetus.  It conserves oxygen and reduces metabolic demand.  This acts as a protective mechanism against brain damage in the neo-cortex of the brain of the baby during labor and delivery.

This leads me to believe the fetus would no longer receive full protection, significantly less so depending on various factors, and be at risk of going into distress due to pain management medications, synthetic Oxytocin (pitocin*) to start/augment labor, or C-sections. 

* Pitocin's actions don't reach the brain or act entirely the same way as the Oxytocin our bodies produce.

Because of the limited use and availability of pain medications for labor before the 50's, Oxitocin deprivation during birth should have been very uncommon.  With medication assisted intervention now so prevalent, only about 7% of the babies born in the U.S. would have such a protection, possibly adding another 1% to account for un-medicated home births assuming the statistics are for hospital births only & assuming all home births were un-medicated.

I have a theory that the consequence of the modern labor/birth experience results in somewhat of a diminished set point due to the intense stress/trauma at birth in response to lower levels of Oxytocin during labor. Then add a diminished response of the baby's post delivery Oxytocin release in response to the mother's compromised post-delivery flood of Oxytocin.

Consider this: say a baby born in the 50's grows up with a compromised oxytocin set point due to the events above, and then gives birth with the standard interventions of the 70's.  Seems to be a double whammy because as a baby this mother was deprived of some level of Oxytocin at birth, and now again at labor/delivery.  And now, her baby would not only have a compromised set point but the added complication of a mother with a doubly compromised set point.  Each generation would be impaired to a greater degree bringing us to the present time. 

Anyone who knows me knows how I love analogies, so here's one for you:

If you think of it as getting a smaller gas tank with your new car rather than the size it was designed to have, it's a little easier to imagine.  You could only put so much gas into it which doesn't get you as far.  You can take a gas can with you (natural & drug interventions) but it doesn't fix that your tank is too small, perhaps inconvenient, or maybe so limiting that you can't get anywhere you need to go even with a gas can (or several cans) to make it that far! You could always replace the gas tank with the proper size it was always meant to have, but it comes at a great expense of time, money, education & work.

It's a wonder we are able to function as well as we do when you really start to understand and consider it all.  Oxytocin is the "calmer" for the stress hormone Cortisol.  If you don't have sufficient ability to calm the Cortisol levels, you end up with chronic stress, and on and on from there.  And if my theory is true, it would only account for part (large or small) of oxytocin deficiency in a person. After all, not everyone gets a full tank at the gas station. Our daily interactions with others are essentially the fuel in our tank, so our experiences in life determine how full our tank is or can be filled at any given time.  And concequently, our experiences in life also determine how we perceive our future experiences and interactions with others.  So even though someone is offering fuel for our tank or there is a station to fill up at, we perceive fuel has been siphoned from our already limited supply or in the case of the station, we don't stop for fuel because we don't see it or think of it as something that it's not.

One more thing about it all, I can't exactly say I was surprised by the lower incidence of Postpartum Depression among women who choose home births,  16% compared to 68% of women who birth at a hospital.  Why?   

It's enough to make me wonder what kind of an affect (if any) will come from the 20% increase of home births since 2004...



Here are some of the resources where I gathered information for anyone interested in learning more, most of which offer more resources on their sites:

• oxytocin-neuroprotective-protection
• natural childbirth resources - post birth
• Documentary: The business of being born (not rated)
• Documentary: Pregnant in america (not rated)