What is Oxytocin?
Oxytocin is the top trumps of hormones for your health and wellbeing when it comes to women and people with a monthly hormonal cycle. It is the balancing hormone for all life stages, throughout the monthly menstrual cycle, for conception, pregnancy, labour and birth and also for peri and menopause health.
It is the primary hormone for labour and birth.
Oxytocin is known as the love hormone and is the hormone that we produce when we feel safe, happy and connected. (this applies for people of all genders).
It is the hormone of trust, and relationship. It is one of the hormones connected to experiencing pleasure. Oxytocin has been famously called the love hormone by doctor Michelle Odent; it is produced during sex and is high during orgasm. It’s present when we hug for more than 30 seconds as there are oxytocin receptors on our chests, and leads to a sense of wellbeing.
Some interesting experiments that have been conducted regarding oxytocin – one study looked at raised oxytocin levels at a wedding – read more about that here:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527471-000-my-big-fat-geek-wedding-tears-joy-and-oxytocin
Oxytocin is increased when we trust each other. For example, an experiment found that participants showed increased oxytocin levels when lending money to both the giver and the recipient.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20678992
Oxytocin is important for recovery from illness, and promotes cell and tissue recovery.
https://josr-online.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13018-015-0301-x
Stress hormones are antigen to oxytocin, meaning that engaging in activities that promote oxytocin will reduce the harmful health impact of stress.
The role of oxytocin in Labour and Birth
Oxytocin causes the uterus to contract – so it is the main hormone for labour and birth. It is the hormone that all mammals produce to give birth. It’s also a key hormone for lactation.
What I find absolutely beautiful is that the hormonal molecule for health, wellbeing, love and connection is a key component to the manner in which we incarnate as souls on earth.
That from conception onwards oxytocin is there, and it is acting on both the mother/birthing person and the baby’s body in a profound way. Throughout pregnancy and then increasingly in labour and birth the baby and mother’s brains produce more and more oxytocin. At other sites around the body, more oxytocin receptors are created (for example breast and uterus). So with each pregnancy, labour and birth the mother or birthing person is primed again and again for increased health and wellbeing. The other vital function of oxytocin in labour and birth is to create the physiology for our relationship between the mother and baby. The health and wellbeing of the mother and baby and the social connections of the dyad with the rest of the family is all formed through this incredible hormone.
Oxytocin is for connection and our experience of love, this starts with the mother (birthing person) and baby, and then ripples out to the partner or father and the extended family.
Love and connection is the foundation of our birth physiology.
Safe labour and birth
I have asked 100s of couples and single women what their hopes and fears for their labour and birth are, and almost every single one of them state safety as one of their biggest hopes.
For labour and birth to be safe and for the body to work efficiently – high levels of oxytocin must be present.
The woman or birthing person’s body is a factory for making the hormonal cocktail in labour and birth, especially IN THE OPTIMAL ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS.
Conditions for high levels of oxytocin for labour & birth
- To be with people who you know and who you trust
- To be in a place with lowlights
- To minimise talking or other ‘thinking’ type activities like being aware of time
- To feel unobserved
- Where you can move your body in a way that feels instinctive
It’s a very similar environment for having pleasurable sex (and orgasm), another time when oxytocin is produced in higher levels. Many mammals, cats, dogs, gorillas will choose a dark hidden type space to give birth because this will naturally instinctively make the process easier and safer.
Cortisol is antigen to Oxytocin
Stress hormones act on the body and reduce oxytocin, in the context of labour and birth this is important because it means that if a mammal is under threat (real or perceived) she wont make oxytocin and this means her labour will stop or slow down and give her time to escape from the predator/the danger.
Making sure that you spend time minimising fears, and reducing stress and increasing a sense of safety and trust and relaxation has a very real impact on labour and birth for this reason.
Birth-Energetics Programme is designed specifically to use Energy-lift to get to the root of fears and dissolve the energy thats held in your conscious and subconscious mind and replace them with uplifting and inspiring beliefs that support you and your body.
What is artificial oxytocin?
As birth has increasingly in very recent human history begun to take place in environments where:
- We are surrounded by strangers
- In bright lights
- With people talking to you and asking you questions
- Being monitored and checked with machines or instruments
This film comically shows the disruption of natural oxytocin and what is likely to unfold as a result of environmental favtors listed above.
Unsurprisingly many labours are often being deemed ‘failure to progress’ , what we could rename failure to create a supportive environment and give enough time. In the hospital environment an intervention to ‘help’ the process along is sometimes suggested this process is called augmentation. A drip of artificial oxytocin is administered to the woman or birthing person in labour. This makes the uterus contract.
Artificial oxytocin does not come from the person’s brain and does not act on the body in the same way, it does not act in symphony with the other hormones for labour and birth. This intervention in labour leads to increased monitoring because there is an associated risk to the baby (the baby may become distressed), and to the uterus being over-stimulated (risk of uterine rupture).
The person in labour is also restricted in their natural movement because they are plugged into a drip stand plus additional monitoring equipment.
Over the last 15 years we are seeing increasing numbers of c sections and instrumental deliveries as a result.
You can read more about the risks of artificial oxytocin here:
Trust your body your body knows what to do
Getting to know how to increase your natural oxytocin levels is an empowering way to relate to your body and your health at any time in your life. This is particularly important during pregnancy.
Pregnancy itself will cause your oxytocin levels to increase, and the partners of pregnant women also experience elevated oxytocin during pregnancy.
For many of us we have been trained out of trusting our bodies, and as a culture we are taught to see our bodies as something to be observed, judged and evaluated from the outside; rather than enjoyed from the inside.
Often the message for girls, women and femme identifying people is to be ‘small’ to not take up space, and to measure their value by a very eurocentric, white skinned model of beauty.
Letting go of this internalised objectification can be hard, but tuning in and learning to inhabit our bodies from the inside is one of the gifts of pregnancy and labour and birth.
Activities for increasing oxytocin during pregnancy, but also anytime!
- Singing or chanting in groups
- Sharing a meal with people you love
- Walking in nature
- meditation
- Stroking a pet
- Orgasm self touch and pleasurable touch
- Massage
- Talking to friends you feel close to about things that are important to you
- Cuddling or hugging someone you love
- Cuddling a baby
- Yoga
- Tell someone how much you care about them
I invite you to make daily rituals for increasing oxytocin, and connecting to pleasure in your body.
If you want some support for your pregnancy to prepare for labour and birth my Birth Energetics Programme includes: online doula support, antenatal education, energy-lift to transform the energy of your fears into the energy of confidence, power, safety and connection. Connected to yourself, your baby and to your family. The programme includes practices that actively encourage and support you to nourish your body, free your mind and find the inner confidence to birth in a way thats right for you.