Michel Odent noted that when women are terrified in advanced second stage
labor, they give birth, suddenly and almost precipitously.  If they are
frightened in early labor, contractions subside.  He postulated that a dire
threat in early labor would best be dealt with by waiting til one was in a
safe place to have the baby.  But by the time birth is (relatively) imminent,
the safest response would be to expel the baby, so you could then pick it up
and run.  Penny Simkin found the same effects in her pioneering work a couple
of decades back, on catecholamines and progress in labor.

We know that oxytocin mitigates the effects of cortisol and vasopressin.  We
know (I do now, anyway, after reading part of an article by Kerstin
Uvnäs-Moberg this evening) that pain impulses travel along different nerve
fibers than pleasant sensations use.  I have never heard that stress enhances
the MER, and there is some evidence from studies on catecholamine secretion
that over time, the oxytocin will lose out in the face of high catecholamine
levels.  That said, lactation is one of those important functions, like
breathing and pumping blood.  We do those things even under stress too, but it
doesn't prove that stress is an integral part of the process, just that we are
designed to be able to live in the real world.  And not all of us would be
stressed by lactating in an auditorium full of interested onlookers,
particularly not the ones of us who volunteer to be observed in such a
setting.

There is quite a lot of endocrinology research on oxytocin secretion, so we
don't have to rely on conjecture.  Uvnäs-Moberg's article in the issue of the
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, vol.807, January 15, 1997, has 90
references, and her article is only one of several.  The entire issue is on
the topic 'The Integrative Neurobiology of Affiliation' and it is a
medium-sized book.
Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html