Sure, there's a connection between how we're treated and our feelings of self-worth. Is there also an oxytocin connection?
Nekole Shapiro of EmbodiedBirth speaks to the connection between how a woman feels about herself sexually-- whether on a date or in the birthing room -- and the production of oxytocin. Learn why disrespecting a laboring woman hinders the birthing process. She finishes by taking us through an exercise that can help you feel more in touch with your own body.
This is Nekole's intro to @RickiLake's movie More Business of Being Born - The VBAC Dilemma at Birth Uncut in Reno NV Nov. 2011.
Studies of European countries with substantially longer paid maternity leave find that the benefits of up to 40 weeks off are huge. Not only does it reduce infant deaths, according to Sharon Lerner, writing for Slate:
One study tracked Norwegian children who were born after 1977, when that country increased its paid leave from zero to four months and its unpaid leave from three to 12 months, and found that the kids born after the change had lower high school dropout rates. Military draft data, moreover, tied lengthened leaves to increases in male IQ (and height, too).
Lerner looks at several studies showing benefits of longer maternal leave periods, although the reasons aren't entirely clear. It's possible that it's simply that women with better, better-paying jobs have plenty of other resources to keep their babies and children healthy and engaged.
This is brilliant marketing that also serves the social good. Think about it: Diapers, babies, hugs and mommies. It's a natural fit.
Oh! In fact, that's the name of the product. Huggies Natural Fit is working with parenting expert Dr. Carol Cooper to to help parents further understand the importance of cuddling and the actual cuddle hormone, oxytocin.
Huggies released a survey which found that two thirds of new mothers were unaware of the importance of oxytocin in bonding with their babies. The good news is that more than half strongly believe that cuddling is important for creating a stronger bond.
Oh, wait a minute. That figure is 55 percent. Only 55 percent of mothers know it's important to cuddle their babies? Eek! I hope Huggies can help.
Twelve- and thirteen-year-old girls who had phone calls with their mothers had an oxytocin response that counteracted stress.
The research, by Leslie Seltzer of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, included only girls who reported good relationships with their mothers. (For some people, talking on the phone to Mom is stressful in itself.)
Interestingly, instant messaging with mothers did not produce the oxytocin response in this study.
Earlier research by Seth Pollack, also of U of Wisconsin, found the same effect in girls seven to 12 years old.
If your relationship with your mother is rocky, you will likely get the same benefit by calling a good friend or other family member.
We know oxytocin creates the bond between mother and child. It also lets her overcome fear and defend her child.
When you're in danger, your heart rate speeds up. You sometimes freeze in fear. Researchers at the University of Lausanne found that separate brain circuits control these reactions. When oxytocin is high, for example, when a woman is breastfeeding, fear still makes the heart race but doesn't cause that deer in the headlights reaction. Note, the study was in rats.
"In a danger situation, you may want to maintain a fearful feeling but not be totally immobilized," said study researcher Ron Stoop, who researches psychiatric neuroscience at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. For example, if a predator attacks, a mother may need to fight to protect her offspring, he said.
A new doll originating from Spain aims to teach girls how to breastfeed. The doll reacts to sensors in a halter worn by the kid, making sucking and gulping sounds when its mouth comes close to two "nipples."
Evidently this is creating controversy among parents, some of whom find it creepy or ... somehow .. just wrong.
Video on the company's website shows an actual baby sucking at an actual breast -- something usually relegated to the depths of breastfeeding education sites.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the breastfeeding doll, per se; it just may be a bit too complex of a subject for a child who still watches “Dora The Explorer” and occasionally wets her pants.
Tom Henderson of ParentDish shows just how deep the discomfort with breastfeeding can run. He snarks:
Are you one of these people who find yourself ever-so creeped out by the sight of a woman breast-feeding her baby in public?
Oh, you ain't see nothing yet.
Picture a 7-year-old girl -- or boy, for that matter -- strapping on little flowered falsies so a baby doll can suckle the imaginary breasts -- complete with slurping and gurgling sounds.
When I first read about Breast Milk Baby, I did feel a bit of disturb. I visualized a pair of plastic breasts like those hideous things they sell for Halloween costumes. When I saw the photos, I changed my mind.
The top is simple and girly, with little flowers instead of nipples.
Most of the anti-doll people quoted in news reports say it's making little girls grow up too soon -- even though pretending to do adult things, including feeding a doll with a bottle and playing dressup -- or playing soldier -- is one of the most common ways for kids to play.
I think these folks are really expressing their own over-sexualization of the breast, which is one of the biggest barriers to breastfeeding.
I've officially nominated oxytocin as the God Molecule. If you look at our capacity for connection on a continuum, it can go from the womb, where we are connected to our birth mother, out and upward to the spiritual connection we may feel with things greater than ourselves.
I've described oxytocin's role along the Connection Continuum in an article for Vision magazine called A New Look at Orgasm. Please check it out.
My friend Alan Phillips has written a poem that intertwines many of
the things this blog is about -- love and attachment, labor and birth,
mothering, oxytocin, connection.
It's a wonderful poem, and extra wonderful to me because it lets me
see all these ideas and scientific studies in a different light.
We're beginning to understand more and more about how important early nurturing is for brain development. A secure home environment does more than build a baby's attachment system. It also can set the tone for how a child manages in the school environment.
According to Science Daily, University of Notre Dame professor of psychology Mark Cummings found that a family's relational style affected school behavior. The three styles he describes map to the attachment styles identified by John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. They called them secure, anxious and dismissive; Cummings describes families as either cohesive, enmeshed or detached.
According to the article:
"Coming from a cohesive family, in which members tend to be warm and
responsive to one another, where problems are resolved, and members
cope well, increases the likelihood of children doing well in school,"
according to Cummings.
