Elaine:
"I wonder if the birth process
opens up the brain to new ways of processing information and exactly how
those synapses develop is related to the birth experience.  I heard some
technical session about hormonal (oxytocin) receptors at the LLLI conference
that made me realize how complex our biological processes are and how well
they can explain behavior once we understand them."

Interesting - I'm pretty sure that this is the case (but of course I have no
research-based evidence for thinking so - just experience & observation).
It's pretty clear to me that this effect occurs in varying amounts in
different women - that some women "open up" to it more readily and maybe
more profoundly than others, while others never really quite "get it". Some
women fight the changes that happen, because it makes them uncomfortable or
out of control, while others welcome them and are willing to be opened up
(both in a very physical sense and a more emotional or psychological sense).
Either way, I'm positive it's not separate from the biochemistry that's
going on at this time of change.

And I don't think this is all explainable by non-biological rationale - life
experience, cultural difference, psychological make-up, all those other
things that a woman brings to baby-having. Hormones are chemicals, and they
act at recptor sites; everything that happens in our bodies (which
*includes* our minds, brains)is affected by AND affects what's going on in
that internal environment of chemicals, hormones, electric current,
receptors, etc. So why would the birth process be any different?

I wish we knew more about this!

Cathy Bargar RN IBCLC Ithaca NY

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