The Hormonal Pieces of the Birth Symphony

This writing begins my series on physiological birth! What is physiological birth, you may ask? Physiological means the normal functioning of living beings. So when we talk about physiological birth, that means that we are talking about normal birth as human bodies were built and intended to carry out. Like how they birthed in the “olden days.” :) Usually at home, no pharmaceuticals involved, surrounded by other supportive experienced women or perhaps only their family, vaginally.. That is what I picture in my mind at least, when I mention physiological birth. 

So now that we are on the same page, let’s talk about the building blocks of physiological birth. For simplicity’s sake, I’ll just refer to this as “birth” from now on. :) There are sooo many pieces that go into setting the stage for a positive birth experience (including the deep mammalian need to feel safe, and unobserved), but in this post I will narrow it down to (some of) the hormones involved. These hormones are the same that course through the veins and brains of any mammal, not just humans. The main hormones I’d like to talk about are: 

• Oxytocin

• Adrenaline

• And Endorphins

Oxytocin

Let’s start with oxytocin. I’m sure many of you have already heard of this hormone, nicknamed “the love hormone” or “the feel-good hormone.” This is the hormone that your brain secretes when it feels pleasure, which can arise from receiving or giving a hug, petting a dog, treating yourself in some way, eating something you really enjoy, etc.. 

In birth, oxytocin helps the uterus contract. The brain secretes oxytocin in pulses, and one pulse of oxytocin = one contraction of your uterus. It has pain relieving qualities too, so as your brain releases oxytocin, it affects the pain pathways of your body/brain so that you feel less of the sensations of pain that one would associate with intense muscle contractions over a long period of time. Levels of oxytocin in the body gradually increase (when allowed to and supported) over the course of a birth to a peak just after the baby comes out. This is why contractions get more intense and closer together as birth progresses and also why the moment of birth and right after are the moments of a woman’s life when she will experience the highest levels of oxytocin in her entire lifetime! I’m sure you can imagine, this helps with love and bonding with the baby, and all the other feel-good mushy stuff that happens after birth. 

This hormone has pheromone properties too, so not only does it reduce fear and increase feelings of love, bonding, and trust in the birthing woman, but it will have these same feel-good effects on anyone who is in the room for the birth as well. This is also why watching birth videos in a room full of viewers like I do when I teach the free workshop or my childbirth class raises the vibes! 

Another important thing to note about oxytocin is that it works with oxytocin RECEPTORS in the brain and in the uterus. And in the uterus, these oxytocin receptors increase exponentially in the days and hours and minutes before birth. So, this is why in some cases induction with pharmaceuticals in the hospital or even herbs or oils at home, it just doesn’t work. There aren’t enough oxytocin receptors on the uterus yet to receive whatever would be released by the brain before labor is actually ready to begin. And sometimes when the inductions DO work, they are more painful than when a birth starts on its own: because the body and brain don’t have as many receptors for that feel good hormone as they would if birth initiated spontaneously. 

Speaking about induction, synthetic oxytocin, called Pitcoin in the USA or Syntocinon elsewhere, is not the same as oxytocin, though many hospital staff seem to think it is. Pitcon doesn’t cross the blood-brain barrier as fluidly or in as great amounts (if at all) as endogenous oxytocin (endogenous just means the oxytocin that is produced within your own body as opposed to external oxytocin/Pitocin), so you don’t get the pain-relieving qualities in the brain with Pitocin that you would with oxytocin. Pitocin just affects the muscle of the uterus, causing very strong and close together contractions. Remember earlier when I said one pulse of oxytocin from the brain = one contraction? Well, Pitocin is administered intravenously so it is continuous instead of pulsatile. Which means there is an intensity and speed to Pitocin contractions that is very different than what our bodies were initially designed to experience with endogenous oxytocin contractions. Hence the high rate of epidural administration for women who are administered Pitocin. The combination of lack of pain relieving qualities + greater intensity of contractions = a whole lot more pain in the body. 

Anyway, back to oxytocin, it works in symphony with other hormones during birth, and they have an effect on each other in an ebb and flow sort of way. I’ll touch more on this later, but just know that some of the other hormones that I will write about in this post sometimes can counteract oxytocin in a protective way.. But more on that, later. 

For now, watch the feel good hormonal flowy birth video, linked below!

Adrenaline

Adrenaline is another hormone that spikes to the highest level at the moment of birth that a woman will experience (it spikes to over 900% of the normal amount we experience on a day-to-day basis!). The thing with adrenaline, though, is that it works against oxytocin in some ways, if adrenaline is spiking too early in the labor process. 

So, I’m sure you can imagine, on a mammalian level, that if a female mammal of any species were in the wild giving birth and she was found by a predator, she would experience a spike of adrenaline which would most likely turn off the entire labor process and divert blood flow to her muscles and heart so she could run away and find a safer place to birth. As humans, we are mammals, and we experience the same sort of intelligence when we are giving birth. 

High levels of adrenaline experienced in early labor are associated with longer labors and fetal distress. When adrenaline helps the body divert blood to the muscles and heart, it is diverted away from the uterus and the placenta/baby, which is hard for the baby to tolerate if it is prolonged. 


However, the naturally high level of adrenaline that spikes at the END of labor helps the body push the baby out (sometimes causing a fetal ejection reflex aka FER, which is like a sneeze but instead of the body pushing foreign particles out of the airways, the body pushes the baby out of the uterus in one fell swoop with no outside effort from the mom), helps the mom and baby both experience dilated pupils, enhanced awareness, and increased sense of smell. All of which help with bonding and connection between mom and baby after birth! Beautiful! 


The thing with the spike of adrenaline at the end of labor though, is that levels drop steeply after birth and they really NEED to. Adrenaline counteracts oxytocin, remember? And oxytocin causes the uterus to contract. Which, after birth, means that it’s doing its job of cutting off the blood flow to the placenta, expelling the placenta, and allowing the mom to keep most of her blood volume and not bleed too much after birth. 

Often, at hospitals, even the most “progressive” of mother/baby friendly hospitals in the USA, they will inject the mom with Pitocin after birth in order to ensure that she doesn’t bleed too much and that she expells her placenta (well, really, the hospital staff often pull the placenta out themselves, but that is a topic for another post!). Why do you think they would want to do this?? Because after a birth in a hospital, there is A LOT going on that discourages the drop of adrenaline after birth that is necessary for the body to complete this process on its own. People in and out of the room, talking, lights, noises, people rubbing, suctioning, or taking the baby away from mom for whatever reason. 

I’m sure you can imagine that these same triggers of adrenaline AFTER a birth could cause spikes in adrenaline DURING the birth process, too. Which is why there is such a high incidence of labor slowing down, stopping, or taking a real long time in the hospital or pretty much any environment outside of a woman’s home. It’s hard to feel safe in our deep mammalian brains when people are coming in and out of the room, performing cervical checks, checking blood pressure, starting IVs or ports for IVs, and performing constant or intermittent fetal monitoring, asking us questions, talking about numbers or times, breaking our waters artificially, even asking us to change out of our clothes and into a hospital gown, amongst all the other subtle or overt interventions that women giving birth outside of the home experience. It’s hard to get into the hormonal flow when you have to keep using your forebrain/neocortex to interpret and interact with others. 

Beta-Endorphins 

I love talking about endorphins in labor, especially around here in Sedona, because so many people have experimented with recreational drugs in their lifetimes that it really helps them understand “where” we need to be able to go in order to give birth physiologically.  


Endorphins means “endogenous morphines.” This is our body’s natural body-made pain relieving hormone that is way more powerful than morphine, and it also helps our brains go into an altered state of consciousness. It creates and increases sensations of pleasure, euphoria, and dependency. This is why we in the birth world often say that a woman is off in Laborland.. Women can literally have an otherworldly psycho-spiritual experience during birth, and some would say that for the evolution and continuation of our species, this aspect is completely necessary. 


Think about that! Could you allow yourself to release and go off to another realm during labor? Would you feel safe enough in your chosen birthing space and with your chosen birth team in order to go there? 

Endorphins also increase gradually over the course of a birth experience and peak at the moment of birth. But again, if the body is experiencing too much pain, fear, tension, etc., earlier in the labor process, the body will graciously increase endorphins to high levels in order to help cope with those sensations of pain, but this counteracts the oxytocin feedback loop.. So you don’t want endorphin levels to increase too high too early in labor. What’s also really cool about endorphins, as with all of these hormones, is that the baby also secretes their own endorphins during labor, which helps the baby go to that same altered state of consciousness and bliss that is probably really helpful and beneficial for a baby who is experiencing the physical sensations of being squeezed through the mother’s body to come out into the world. 

Click the button below to watch another super cool hormonal flowy birth video :)

Wrapping It Up

All that being said, you may be wondering how to help your hormonal symphony along in the most supportive way possible during your birth. Or maybe if you’ve already given birth, you’re now seeing some of the reasons why it may have looked and felt the way that it did. Either way, the point of me writing these posts is to share information and perhaps trigger questions for you for how you can have the best birth experience possible for YOU. 

I promise that in future posts I will go over some of the potential HOWs for supporting this process, but for now I just really wanted to go into some of the WHY. The how, of course, is something only you can decide upon and configure for yourself.. I might start with making sure your partner and birth support people are all on the same page with you and all know this stuff! You can share this post with anyone you’d like, if you want something easy to digest and that covers the basics. 

If you’re looking to dive deeper, I highly recommend Dr. Sarah Buckley’s book “Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering” and/or her “Hormonal Physiology Report” which is where a lot of this info comes from. Also, be sure to go to www.indiebirth.org and check out all their podcasts! There’s so much info there on this hormonal process as well as just about anything else you could ever wonder about the physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of pregnancy, birth, and parenting. :) 

And if you’re at all interested in podcasts, make sure to check mine out, as well :)

If you have thoughts or questions, please share them with me via email! I’d love to chat, learn more about you, and hear your story. :)  And if you’re interested in working with me in some way, please reach out about that as well!