How Breastfeeding Helps Mothers Bond

Scientists at Warwick University have modeled the way breastfeeding creates an oxytocin feedback loop that creates the waves of love and peace that many mothers report enjoying while they suckle their babies.

According to the the UK's Mail Online,

... the research team, led by Warwick University scientists, has shown using computer models that when a baby suckles, the mother's neurons respond by churning out the hormone from their dendrites - the part of the cell that usually receives, rather than transmits information.

This extra release of oxytocin creates much stronger links between nerve cells - creating a 'positive-feedback' loop, where the greater the concentration of the chemical, the faster it is produced.

This allows massive, intense, bursts of the love hormone to sweep through the brain at intervals of around five minutes. The findings could shed light on other chemical changes in the brain linked to mood.

Professor Jianfeng Feng, who demonstrated the effect, said: 'We knew that these pulses arise because, during suckling, oxytocin neurons fire together in dramatic synchronised bursts.

'But exactly how these bursts arise has been a major problem that has until now eluded explanation.

This must be an amazing feeling, and I can see how it would create a very deep connection to the baby. I think those of us who haven't experienced this cannot imagine the feeling. I also have to wonder -- just a little? -- about how not experiencing this affects the bonding between mother and baby.

See also, The Mother/Baby Attachment Gap.

Comments

[Renee]

I would describe the initial experience of oxytocin connected to breast feeding as a way to cope immediately after childbirth. Three out of the four times I’ve given birth, I had the child immediately placed on my chest to breastfeed, as I pushed out the placenta. Then the act of breastfeeding in the first few days contracts the uterus down, which feels like horrible menstrual pain as the baby feeds. Also after a woman gives birth there is no time to truly rest, because the baby is cluster feeding for hours at a time and sleeps no more then in two hours at a time. Never mind one’s girlie parts still being sore from a vaginal delivery or having the soreness from a c-section.

I noticed a difference in how others treat the mother depending on whether I uses breast milk or formula. When I used formula my husband and others would help out with the feeding, which was great, yet when I breast fed my husband and relatives more attentive to me; and not just the baby. Because the baby was so dependent on me, their attitude and focus was more concern for my wellbeing in terms nutrition and rest.

I have to say it is amazing the push to breastfeed over the past six years since I first gave birth. I formula fed my first, and there were samples and coupons in the hospital room and sent to my home. My last birth (just this month) there was nothing in the hospital room to promote formula, even though it was available if a mother choose to. The hospital had a full-time lactation consultant that one could see after the hospital stay, in which both private health insurance company and public social services would accept the bill.

In a recent local news article about a home for older teen mothers, who had no where else to go with their infants, they even promoted breastfeeding/pumping. I would expect for new mothers who are ambivalent in their ability to bond with their baby to begin with, breastfeeding would be much needed in coping with the stress of a newborn. It’s an extra hormone boost of confidence, since the pregnancies were unexpected and women have little to no support from family.

It's nice to see breastfeeding promoting for all mothers, and it isn't seen as a luxury.