Can you manufacture love?

If you've been in love, experienced "warm fuzzies," or given a hug, then you've experienced the hormone oxytocin and all of the positive effects that accompany its release. Often dubbed "the love hormone," oxytocin is responsible for the intoxicating gaze between two lovers as well as the trust felt in a relationship. Oxytocin is, in part, responsible for conceiving your baby!

Oxytocin is also an important ingredient in the labor and delivery process. It is the baby's production of oxytocin that initiates the mother's labor response by the production of her own oxytocin. This hormone is responsible for the contraction of the uterus during the third trimester, during labor, delivery and postnatal contractions. Oxytocin also stimulates milk production for breastfeeding and acts in conjunction with a myriad of other hormones to prepare mother and baby for life together.

You may not be familiar with the hormone oxytocin. How about its synthetic cousin, pitocin/sintocinon? Synthetic oxytocin is used to augment or induce labor, bypassing baby's signal of readiness to mom in order to start or speed up labor. While oxytocin is produced and released naturally in bursts throughout labor and delivery, synthetic oxytocin is administered continuously through an IV, making contractions longer and stronger, potentially placing the baby in distress. Many of these labors end with a caesarian section. Synthetic oxytocin also interferes with the mother's natural production of oxytocin and minimizes the love response of mother to her new child. The result can be a depressed mom and a distressed child.

Recently, one of my prenatal yoga clients commented that she'd previous been induced twice out of the three births she has experienced. The first because her baby "was too big to delivery" and then second time because she'd been induced previously. My client expressed her extreme dislike of being induced and hoped not to be induced for her upcoming birth. She also commented that she thought "pitocin is overused." I tended to agree with her, based on what the birth stories I've listened to over the years. My feeling - and hers - was confirmed with a bit of checking.

The rate of induction in the United States in 2008 according to the 2012 U.S. Census Bureau was 23.1%. This is for all singleton gestations. This rate rose to 24.3 for gestations over 37 weeks (term). Almost 25% of babies born in the United States are born before they naturally signal to their mother that they are ready. Almost 25% of the initial bonding between mothers and babies is usurped by intravenously administered synthetic oxytocin. What effect might this have on the delicate hormonal dance between mother and child? What effect does this have on the warm fuzzies? Science is beginning to study this very question (for more information, click here).

Medicine has saved lives. There is no doubt about it. Medicine has saved mothers and babies and families. This is true. But when medicine disrupts the hormonal love dance between mothers and their babies we need to begin asking the question: Can you manufacture love?