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Subject:
From:
T Pitman <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 9 Jun 2000 10:28:10 -0400
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I went to a wonderful seminar with Michel Odent a year or so ago, and he
spoke quite a bit about oxytocin, how it affects the mother-infant bond, and
how various interventions interfere with it. Induction of labour, because it
uses artificial oxytocin, decreases the amount of natural oxytocin the body
produces in labour. The artificial oxytocin does not pass into the brain,
though, so it cannot produce the "caretaking" effects that natural oxytocin
does.

He had some interesting animal research. When sheep are given epidurals
during labour, for example, they will not care for their lambs after they
are born - they reject them.

He also pointed out that skin-to-skin contact increases oxytocin production,
and thinks it is essential for babies where there has been a lot of
intervention in labour. Kangaroo care and sleeping naked together are his
suggestions.

Odent feels that for most of recorded history, cultural birth practices have
deliberately (though probably subconsciously) intervened in the natural
process to prevent the strong bonds between mother and child from
developing. For example, many cultures have prohibited the mother from
giving her baby colostrum. In others (such as ours) the baby has been
routinely separated from the mother (triggering a grieving reaction).
Societies did this, he believes, because they wanted the bond weakened -
either because they saw children as the property of the father, and wanted
to disconnect the child from the mother, or because they needed the mother
to separate from the baby to work or to fulfill her role in the marriage, or
because they wanted children to grow up to be warriors/soldiers who would
kill for their society. His ideas are very interesting, and make a lot of
sense to me.

Teresa Pitman
Guelph, Ontario

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