138. Oxytocin - The Love Hormone, And Its Mate: Pitocin

On this Valentines Day, the day of love, I'm sharing why the love hormone is critical in both childbirth and lactation. Also, do you know the difference between Pitocin and Oxytocin? It's a slight but critical difference. Listen in to feel more empowered in your birth and breastfeeding decisions.

Oxytocin Study 1
Oxytocin Study 2

This episode appeared first on the Breezy Babies website.

Outline

Bri’s introduction.
0:00

Oxytocin and life-saving moments.
4:41

What is oxytocin and pitocin?
8:49

What is pitocin and how does it work?
11:09

Risk of postpartum depression.
15:51

The effect of pitocin on breastfeeding.
17:06

Oxytocin levels during breastfeeding.
19:27

Oxytocin’s role in breastfeeding.
23:21

Skin-to-skin contact and breast massage.
25:25

Transcript

Welcome to the breezy babies podcast. This is episode 138. Oxytocin, the love hormone and its mate Pitocin. Could you use more confidence as a parent, welcome to the happy place for boobs and babies, you're in good hands. Breezy babies is where we ease your transition into parenthood because it's a bumpy road, am I right? I'm your host Bri the IBCLC. And if you'd like to make life as a parent more breezy, you're in the right place. I'm here to deliver small bite sized tips and tricks so you can crush your parenting and lactation goals. I'm honored to be on this journey with you. Let's go. Hey there friends. Happy Valentine's Day. If you're listening to this podcast on the day that it came out, then it is the day of love. And what is more perfect to talk about a day of love, then the love hormone, which is totally tied to labor and delivery and breastfeeding and everything that this podcast stands for. So I'm so excited to share that with you today. But before we get into that, I just want to send you a reminder that there is still so much good in this world. We got back from our vacation. A little over a week ago, I got back late on a Sunday night. And the next day was Monday. And I had scheduled to do my taxes for my business that day. Even though I knew it was gonna be crazy. I was trying to get it done by the end of the month. And after I went and got my taxes done, which I went in a frenzy. And luckily my tax lady is so good and just took care of everything for me. And can I just say how glad I am that I do not do taxes. I would much rather do breastfeeding, breastfeeding and babies and not taxes at all. But anyway, on my way home from doing my taxes, I thought Oh, I better just stop at the grocery store. We have no food in our house. You know how it is before you go on vacation, you kind of plan it out to where use all your food. And then when you get home, you just have nothing. I tried to plan it out to do a grocery pickup. But where we were we just didn't have any internet access. And I couldn't schedule grocery pickup that far in advance. So anyway, I stopped by the grocery store, I was tired and frazzled and I'm sure I looked so tired and so frazzled. Honestly, after that long flight the day before I kind of had that feeling that I'm so familiar with after working night shift as a nurse for so many years, just kind of in a haze and feeling like I need to go to sleep. It's like not the right time to go to sleep. And anyway, I went through with all of my groceries. I went to Winco. I don't know if you have Winco in your area. They take debit cards only. So I get through all of I'm scanning all my groceries, I bagging them all. I go to pay. And as I'm pulling out my cards, I realize oh my gosh, I don't think I have my debit card. I had taken it out before we traveled because this was a couple years ago. But one time when we're traveling, I actually had my debit card stolen out of my wallet. And the two people who had stolen it, they went down the road to like the local Walgreens and bought two $500 Visa gift cards. And $1,000 was out of my account just like that within a matter of like 10 or 15 minutes after they stole it. Luckily, we had a police report and they put it back. But I mean, if you've had this happen to you before, there's just months of ripple effects of Oh, my daughter's Deutz isn't paid for it because we had that card on file. And now they're saying we have a late fee. And so I need to go in there and update that card. And it just was this ripple effect for months of having a new debit card. So anyway, it I didn't want to have that happen again. So I purposely took out our debit card before we traveled. And that did not serve you well for going to Winco getting back so here I have $160 worth of groceries, already bagged in my cart, and I realized oh my gosh, I don't have my debit card. I'm trying to call my husband to see if he can run it over since he works from home and then I'm remembering that he said he was going to be in a meeting all afternoon and I was just like this is the worst. And the checkers like oh we can just put it all in the fridge you can come back later and pick up your groceries. And I'm just like, oh, this is just feels like too much for today. And can I just tell you, the most angel of a lady standing behind me, she comes over to me and she's like, You know what I would love to pay for your groceries and you can just Venmo me. And that was the nicest thing. Honestly, it didn't cost her anything. I then mode her right away. I was like, I want to make sure that went through to your account before I leave, because I was so appreciative of that small act of kindness on her part that saved me so much time and headache with all that was going to happen with our groceries and not having anything to eat for dinner and trying to get back and pick up those groceries so we could have something for dinner. And this is just a little reminder for you that there still is so much good in the world, even when things feel heavy and hard. And sometimes it seems like there's a lot of negativity on the internet, there are still good people in the world and I cannot wait till I can pay it forward and help someone else out in need. Again, it didn't it didn't cost her anything. I've enrolled her the full amount. But it still was like such a relief in my day. After having such a crazy day that I cannot thank her enough. Her name is Carolyn, actually I know because I've read mode her and and I can't wait to repay and pay that forward to someone else in the future. All right, I am so excited to share about oxytocin with you today. Before I do that, I want to read this apple podcast review for you. It's from mom of three arriba she titled it life saving which oh my gosh, I feel like I had a lifesaver just this last week with nice Carolyn who helped me out at Winco. But this review says you're not alone. This podcast is such a blessing. And every episode gives me peace and more confidence in my breastfeeding journey. Whatever your journey looks like this podcast is a great tool. Thank you so much mom of three underscore rd for leaving that review on Apple podcasts. And I would love to send you one of my products as a small thank you for leaving that review. If you just email me Bri at breezy babies.com. I would love to send you one of my online workshops or ebooks for totally free. Kate, let's get into oxytocin, the love hormone. Let's talk about this on this Valentine's Day, I want to start by telling you that there are two studies that I'm going to be referencing in this podcast episode, I will break down both of those for you very, very simplistically, and just take chunks from it that apply to this podcast because they're both very long and have a lot to them. So if you would like to go and read the two articles and film, then I will have those linked in the show notes. For you to go look on your own. The first study that I'm going to be pulling from is titled oxytocin. That's an easy one, right? Like what other name would we call it besides oxytocin. And this study was last revised in November 30 of 2022. So pretty pretty recently, some of the studies that we pull from in lactation are sold. And it's just the best we can do because there's not a lot of great studies to always pull from when it comes to breastfeeding and lactation, childbirth, there's just not a lot of money behind it. But let's break this down. And let's talk about what oxytocin as you might already be familiar with it if you're in the breastfeeding world if you have done some research about breastfeeding and lactation, but I'm just going to break it down really simply so that we get a firm foundation before we continue on to dive a little deeper into oxytocin and also Pitocin and how the two are related. Okay, so if you were to look up the definition online, it would say oxytocin is an essential lactation hormone released during breastfeeding that causes milk ejections and appears to have a calming effect on the mother.
Now, that said two things there. It said that, first of all, oxytocin causes milk rejection. And second of all, it said that oxytocin also has a calming effect on the mother. Okay. Another definition says oxytocin is released in response to breastfeeding to cause milk rejection. Again, the nickname for this hormone is the loved one. hormone which I thought, oh my gosh, this is just too perfect to talk about on Valentine's Days. This episode is going live on Valentine's Day, the day of love, I just thought this was too perfect. Okay, so let's kind of move into these top tips. And this will kind of unfold, the more that we talk about it came. So let's move into tip number one. And that is oxytocin. Again that love hormone that's with milk injection and calming effects for the mother. So tip number one, again, is oxytocin and Pitocin are not the same thing. Now that you know what oxytocin is, you might be wondering what is Pitocin. The definition of this again, if you were to like do a Google search and look it up online, it would say that Pitocin is a synthetic version of the naturally producing hormone oxytocin. Now out of the whole sentence that I just said, synthetic is the most important word in that sentence. Synthetic means not real, and not naturally occurring. So Pitocin is a hormone that is used to induce labor or strengthen uterine contractions, or to control bleeding after childbirth. So you can think of oxytocin as naturally occurring love hormone, and Pitocin. As more of the synthetic version, you may have heard the word Pitocin, or your birth, because it's actually routinely given in labor and delivery. Well, at least it was routinely given to every single mom that I saw when I worked as the postpartum nurse in the hospital, I worked on a postpartum unit for five years against the nurse. And most of the time I worked there, Pitocin was only given if blood loss was high. Or maybe if this was a mom, like sixth, seventh, eighth or ninth delivery, I think that nine was the most kids I ever knew of working in the hospital that came from one mom, which even for Utah, that's a bit high, but at any rate, but Olson was not usually given unless there was a reason. Then at some point more towards the end of my five years working as a postpartum nurse, the policy changed. And all of a sudden, every single mom got a bag of Pitocin that was hung after delivery, no matter what, even if everything was fine with it delivery. Now, you could argue if that's right or not, we won't go into the details on this podcast episode. But when I worked there, I didn't think a lot about it. Except I do remember thinking it would stink to have to be hooked up to an IV to get that bag of Pitocin, especially if you had had an unmedicated delivery. And I also thought about how much it would stink that these moms would probably be feeling stronger and more painful after birth contractions, as that Pitocin would make their uterus shrink down a bit faster and a bit stronger. I also think it's important for full disclosure, to say that Pitocin it does have side effects. It's not necessarily a bad drug, it has its place. But it's also not fair to act like it can be given willy nilly to everyone and not have any side effects. In my mommy meds app, which I love. And I use this app all the time. There are some side effects that are listed for Pitocin. And those listed are hypotension, hypertension, so low blood pressure, high blood pressure, and then it goes on to say water intoxication and excessive uterine contractions, uterine hypertonicity, and spasm Okay, so if given too much, it definitely can cause the uterus to contract a little bit too much. So let's go on and continue to look at the oxytocin study I referenced in the beginning of this episode. This is what they say. Numerous studies suggest that oxytocin given during labor can negatively affect breastfeeding, possibly by reducing sucking behavior in the newborn in a dose dependent manner or by decreasing postpartum oxytocin release. Although study mythology and consistency has varied considerably, okay, stick with me. We're going to keep going here. Keep reading from this study. It says this effect might be the most important during the initiation of breastfeeding but may not persist after lactation is established. One study found that only oxytocin in conjunction with epidural analgesia reduced breastfeeding but not oxytocin alone. Okay, so what that saying is once study said that moms who got this synthetic oxytocin during labor it didn't negatively affect their lactation. But when it was given along with an epidural, then it did negatively affect breastfeeding and lactation. Another study found I'm gonna keep reading from the study. Another study found that all rhythmic reflexes, the antigravity reflex, and total primitive neonatal reflexes, were inhibited by intrapartum oxytocin administration unrelated to dose. Okay, so Pitocin, it was given whether a little bit or a lot didn't matter. And then it goes on to say, which could adversely affect breastfeeding, some evidence exists that Peri partum oxytocin administration might increase the risk of postpartum depression. Okay, that's a huge one right there, because I don't know about you, but I don't like to mess around with postpartum depression. So again, I want to say that informed consent is so important, you now know that oxytocin can negatively affect breastfeeding possibly made worse by also having an epidural, and that postpartum depression can be increased as well. This matters because it's all about risk versus benefit, are these risks listed worth the benefit of decreasing the chance of postpartum hemorrhage? Maybe it's not going to be a one size fits all. So the key here is now that you're informed, you can make a choice, you have a choice, and you can talk with your healthcare provider about that, whether he or she is an OB GYN or a midwife, you can talk with your labor and delivery nurse. We just heard from my friend Naomi a couple of weeks ago about how sometimes labor and delivery nurses their hands are tied by hospital procedures and rules. So probably talking with your healthcare provider is most important. include this in your birth plan, advocate for yourself and have your support person advocate for you as well. Okay, let's keep looking at our studies here. So in this study, they took 20 women who were having their first baby. And they found that those who were still exclusively breastfeeding at three months had received a lower dose of Pitocin during labor 1363 Millie units is what they said. So they were more likely to be exclusively breastfeeding at three months than those who were not exclusively breastfeeding. And they had also received a higher dosage of Pitocin an average of 3088 milli i units. So the result that they found here was that that babies who had higher doses of Pitocin while their mothers were laboring, they had an inhibitory effect on neonatal sucking, which of course, would have a negative effect on lactation and breastfeeding as well.
Okay, let's keep going here. There was also a small, non randomized cohort study that found that newborn infants whose mother received synthetic oxytocin to induce or maintain labor had a decreased level of pre feeding organization one hour after birth, which we know is the golden hour, we don't want to mess with that time. There also was a retrospective cohort study in Spain that compared breastfeeding outcomes between mothers who received oxytocin during labor and mothers who did not including those who delivered via elective cesarean section. Mothers who received oxytocin during the first and second stages of labor had a 45% increased risk of bottle feeding and a 129% increased risk of breastfeeding Diskin discontinuation by three months of age oh my gosh, that is huge. And it goes on to say the effects were most pronounced in women under 27 years of age. They also said that a prospective cohort study in Spain found no relationship between oxytocin dose during labor or postpartum with the duration of breastfeeding. However, elective cesarean section without oxytocin resulted in the greatest risk of stopping exclusive breastfeeding. So there's a lot of different information there from different studies that have been done. But overall, we can see that sometimes when these interventions are done, it absolutely can have effect on our lactation goals and our breastfeeding goals. Okay, let's move on to tip number two. And that is you're likely to have higher oxytocin levels. If you've had multiple babies, you have less stress, and you deliver vaginally and unmedicated. Okay, I know it was kind of a lot, but let's kind of break this down. Let's go back to our study here. So in this study they looked at 601 women and they found that breastfeeding induces an immediate and short lasting release of oxytocin. So what they mean by a short lasting release is about 20 minutes of releasing oxytocin during breastfeeding. They found in the early postpartum period that the release of oxytocin was pulsar tile, okay. So, what that means is there was five pulses every 10 minutes. And it got higher as lactation proceeded as time went on. They go on to say in this study that the number of oxytocin pulses during early breastfeeding was associated with greater milk yield and longer duration of lactation and was reduced by stress. Okay, that's an a really important part here. I want you to think of oxytocin and stress as opposites, like a light switch when one is high, the other is low, like completely turned off and then vice versa. Okay. So love is that feel good hormone stress is not that feel good feeling. When one is high, the other has to be low.
So in this study, they go on to say that when we breastfeed, oxytocin is released and also prolactin levels are high, they're elevated. Now, when this happens, we have lower ACTH and cortisol, which are stress hormones, okay? So oxytocin is high, prolactin is high. ACTH, and cortisol, stress hormones are low, and also talks about how there's enhanced sociability with high oxytocin and reduced anxiety. And so in this study, they suggest that oxytocin induces physiological and psychological adaptations in the mother. They go on to say that mechanical breast pumping but not bottle feeding was associated with oxytocin and prolactin release and decreased stress level. So again, they're saying if you're using a breast pump, then that helps to increase oxytocin and prolactin, but bottle feeding does not do that for a mother. And then to finish off what they said in this study, says emergency cesarean section reduced oxytocin and prolactin release in response to breastfeeding and also maternal mental adaptations. Epidural analgesia reduced prolactin and mental adaptations, whereas infusions of synthetic oxytocin, aka Pitocin, increased prolactin and mental adaptation. Oxytocin infusion also restored negative effects induced by cesarean section and epidural analgesia. Okay, so we have a couple different viewpoints from these studies. Let's continue on with tip number three. And that is oxytocin is for bonding. I want to read a little bit from the study that's called maternal plasma levels of oxytocin during breastfeeding, a systemic, a systematic review. And again, if you want to go read this entire study, then you can click the link in the show notes, but I'm gonna break it down for you a little bit. In the study. They say breastfeeding also supports the interaction and bonding between mother and an infant. longer duration of breastfeeding was associated with more maternal sensitive responsiveness and more attachment security and less attachment disorganization in the child. They talk about oxytocin and how it plays a key role in breastfeeding. They talk about how it's released into circulation during breastfeeding, it promotes milk rejection contracts, the Myo epithelial cells surrounding the mammary gland and relaxes the milk duct sphincters that kind of explains a little bit more in detail about exactly what's happening when your milk is letting down or coming out. They go on to say that suckling also induces a release of oxytocin from nerves within the brain where oxytocin facilitates both physiological and psychological adaptations for breastfeeding and motherhood. Oxytocin promotes prolactin release and thereby milk production. It also induces powerful anti stress effects, including decreased blood pressure and cortisol levels. Remember, cortisol is those stress hormones so it decreases blood pressure decreases stress hormones, and it also stimulates digestive and metabolic processes. They go on to say it has been suggested that medical interventions during labor and birth, including cesarean section, epidural analgesia, and infusion of synthetic oxytocin, so again, that's C section getting an epidural or having Pitocin during labor, all three of those things might negatively impact the initiation and or continuation of breastfeeding. medical interventions may hypothetically cause such effects by influencing the release of an effects caused by oxytocin during labor and birth in the long term. Okay, so you might be thinking great, I had a stressful labor that ended in a C section, I'm screwed. Well, there's another secret weapon you can use to increase your oxytocin and that is skin to skin contact. They go on to say in this study that skin the skin contact immediately after birth gave rise to an increased oxytocin level. No short lasting peaks were observed rather a more protracted type of oxytocin release, which is good. Now when I say skin to skin I mean skin to skin, take off your baby's clothes, you can leave on a diaper. Take off your gown or your shirt and put your baby directly on your chest with as much skin touching as possible between the two of you. skin the skin really is the best reset button for babies for all babies. Also, just being nearer to your baby in the same room is helpful. In the study they talk about where mothers and babies were together before start of suckling peaks of oxytocin were observed even before the onset of suckling, often in response to the baby's cry. Can you believe that? They found the oxytocin was peaking when mom and baby were close together just by hearing babies cry before baby even latches at all. Isn't that so cool. And another tip I want to leave for you is that you can also massage your breasts. And this study they talked about the effects of breast massage. And they say manual breast massage was associated with a substantial and sustained elevation and oxytocin without the pulses that occurred during suckling. In fact, more oxytocin was released by breast massage than by suckling. So cool, right? So great, we have skin to skin being in the same room as your baby massaging your breasts, I have more. They go on to talk about the effects of stress, depression and alcohol. In the study, they say women exposed to different types of stress, mental or noise. I thought that was really interesting how they said noise during breastfeeding had significantly fewer oxytocin peaks in response to breastfeeding than those mothers that were not exposed to a stressor. Mothers with high depression scores had lower oxytocin levels both before and during breastfeeding, alcohol consumption prior to breastfeeding, also reduced oxytocin release. So now we have a serious list going on about how to increase oxytocin, oxytocin, even if you didn't have the ideal birth that you're hoping for. We have skin to skin being in the same room as your baby massaging your breasts, decreasing mental stress and loud noises, taking care of your mental health and avoiding high amounts of alcohol. If if you exclusively pump or you're separated from your baby, well, you're in luck with this additional tip of using a breast pump. And this study they talked about how mechanical breast pumping was followed by a rise of oxytocin levels, which was generally of similar amplitude to the release caused by suckling. However, no oxytocin peaks were observed before the onset of mechanical pumping more oxytocin was released in response to double pumping both breasts together, compared to single pumping. In addition, double pumping produced the highest milk yield and indicating a relationship between oxytocin levels and milk yield. So cool, right? They end the study by saying this related repeated exposure to oxytocin with each episode of breastfeeding may contribute to the lifelong benefits of breastfeeding for mother and baby and it may even counteract some negative consequences of medical interventions. You guys, this is why your breastfeeding goals matter. This is why it's a problem that when you go to your pediatrician and ask for help with breastfeeding, and you have formula push on you, that's not right. Breastfeeding after a traumatic birth, or maybe a birth that didn't go exactly how you planned breastfeeding after an experience like that can be so healing so yes, your feeding goals matter. Getting help with these things. Good getting help with these things, even like with your laptop, or your milk supply is so important. So I hope you're feeling a little bit more empowered after listening to this love podcasts. Again, my top three tips for you were oxytocin and Pitocin are not the same thing. Tip number two is you're likely to have higher oxytocin levels. If you've had multiple babies, you have less stress and you did For that vaginally and unmedicated. And tip number three is oxytocin is for bonding. I hope you have a great happy day of love, even if it's not Valentine's Day while you're listening to this, I hope it's still a day full of love. I hope you enjoyed this special episode on the love hormone. And, of course, I'm gonna leave you with you're strong, you're smart, you're beautiful. You're a good friend all. Be back with you next week. Bye. If you would like more help, check us out at breezy babies.com. It's the happy place for boobs and babies, where you can take an online workshop on topics from breastfeeding to baby gas. Learn baby massage, get a pumping plan before returning to work and even get one on one lactation help from our IBCLCs we meet with families both in home and also all over the world via secure video and guess what? These lactation consultations might even be covered by your insurance. Click the link in the show notes or visit breezy babies.com to see if you qualify. Also connect with us at breezy babies on Instagram and YouTube. And last if you love what we do, please leave us a review on Google or Apple podcasts by