Oxytocin: My Favorite Hormone
Do you remember that feeling you got with your first kiss? Or held hands with someone new for the first time? That feeling is caused by a hormone called Oxytocin and it's what makes you feel good. It is incredibly amazing in every day life, and even more powerful during labor and birth.
Oxytocin is often known as the "hormone of love" because it is involved with lovemaking, fertility, contractions during labor and birth, and the release of milk in breastfeeding. It helps us feel good, and it triggers nurturing feelings and behaviors.
Low levels of oxytocin during labor and birth can cause problems by:
- causing contractions to stop or slow, and lengthening labor
- resulting in excessive bleeding at the placenta site after birth
- leading providers to respond to these problems with interventions.
As a doula, I work very hard to make sure that the mother is experiencing optimal levels of natural oxytocin. (Artificial/Synthetic oxytocin called Pitocin doesn't work the same way as natural oxytocin does.)
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