You (and your baby) are born with the ability to start labor, labor and give birth, breastfeed and become deeply attached to each other. The flow of hormones in your body drives these well-organized, finely tuned processes.It is important that you and your maternity care providers understand how to work with  and avoid disrupting  these processes.While you don’t need to be taught how to give birth, it is fascinating to learn about the amazing capabilities of women and newborns. For example, a newborn who was not exposed to pain medications and is placed skin-to-skin on his or her mother right after birth can crawl to mom’s breast and begin nursing!Birth hormones are chemical “messengers” that your body makes. Your baby makes birth hormones, too. These hormones work together to guide important changes in your bodies — changes that help make labor and birth go smoothly and safely for both of you

 Birth hormones help guide you and your baby in many ways, including:

Getting your body ready to give birth

Starting your labor contractions

Preparing your baby for labor and life outside your body

Telling your breasts to make milk and getting your baby ready to breastfeed

And when you and your new baby fall in love, birth hormones are part of those feelings, too!

Here we discuss four hormones that are important for reproduction: oxytocin, endorphins, adrenaline and related stress hormones, and prolactin. These hormones play a major role in regulating labor and birth. Learning about them can help you understand what will happen during labor and birth. Decisions you make about your care can support or disrupt the way hormones work, so understanding how they work and how they are affected is important for making informed decisions.

Oxytocin

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.

Receptor cells that allow your body to respond to oxytocin increase gradually in pregnancy and then increase a lot during labor. Oxytocin stimulates powerful contractions that help to thin and open (dilate) the cervix, move the baby down and out of the birth canal, push out the placenta, and limit bleeding at the site of the placenta. During labor and birth, the pressure of the baby against your cervix, and then against tissues in the pelvic floor, stimulates oxytocin and contractions. So does a breastfeeding newborn.

Low levels of oxytocin during labor and birth can cause problems by:

Causing contractions to stop or slow, and making labor take longer.

Resulting in excessive bleeding at the placenta site after birth,Leading health care providers to respond to these problems with interventions.

You can promote your body's production of oxytocin during labor and birth by:

Staying calm, comfortable and confident.

Avoiding disturbances, such as unwelcome people or noise and uncomfortable procedures.

Staying upright and using gravity so your baby is pressed against your cervix and then, as the baby is born, against the tissues of your pelvic floor.Stimulating your nipples or clitoris before birth, and giving your baby a chance to suckle (breastfeed) shortly after birth.

Avoiding epidural analgesia.

EndorphinsWhen you face stress or pain, your body produces calming and pain-relieving hormones called endorphins. You may have higher levels of endorphins near the end of pregnancy. For women who don’t use pain medication during labor, the level of endorphins continues to rise steadily and steeply through the birth of the baby. Most studies have found a sharp drop in endorphin levels with use of epidural or opioid pain medication.

Journal of Women’s Health and Reproductive Medicine is an interdisciplinary journal that explores clinical, medical, social and economic aspects of female reproductive health and medication worldwide.

Authors can submit manuscript as an e-mail attachment to the Editorial Office at https://www.imedpub.com/submissions/womens-health-reproductive-medicine.html

Media Contact
John Kimberly
Associate Managing Editor
Journal of Women’s Health and Reproductive Medicine
Email: womenshealth@emedscholar.com