Table of Contents
E. Understanding the genesis of “Love Emotion” from childbirth
Love is a feeling of “Fear of Death, ” followed by relief of being alive through the attachment of a being!
This is one of the primary emotions that develops in the child right after the birth. When the child tries to come out of the tunnel(the transition from intrauterine to extrauterine life and the transition from the fetus to the newborn), their cortisol surges to its peak2.
The entire birth process is driven by the hormone cortisol, secreted from a small triangle-shaped adrenal gland on the top of the kidneys. Labor pain increases the cortisol in the mother, which due to the endocrinological coupling of mother and baby rises in the baby and the baby starts its journey.
Some effects of cortisol on factors contributing to a normal fetal to newborn transition
- Lung maturation – anatomy and surfactant
- Clearance of fetal lung fluid, (cortisol modulated thyroid increase starts the sodium pump that facilitates this process).
- Increased β receptor density.
- Gut functional maturation.
- Maturation of the thyroid axis (Increased T4 to T3 Conversion)
- Regulate catecholamine release.
- Control energy substrate metabolism. (Surge in the glucose metabolism)
Insight💡
Cesarean section without labor at term blunts the postnatal rise in cortisol, and the cortisol responses to preterm birth also are attenuated because of unresponsiveness and immaturity of the adrenal gland
Once the baby is born, its physiopathology changes rapidly to adapt to the environment, and glucose, therefore dopamine shoots super-high, whereas Cortisol falls to low levels.
We know that cortisol is the stress hormone. Therefore the journey of the fetus towards the extrauterine space is marked by the highest stress experienced by the mother, as well as the baby.
Immediately after the baby is born, if things go well, the baby starts crying, and the baby’s body adapts to the environment. The cry of the baby reaches the mother’s ear and immediately her physiology changes. As the placenta comes out with the birth process, the mother’s hormone Estrogen falls from 2000-3000pgml to about 200pgmal. She experiences relief, and this sudden change coupled with the child’s cry becomes the hormonal snapshot of the event.
(That is why women have a more sensitive hearing sense than men, as they experience the most intense change in their body through the sound of the baby.)
Role of Hormone Oxytocin during the childbirth
The two main physical functions of oxytocin are to stimulate uterine contractions in labor and childbirth and to stimulate contractions of breast tissue to aid in lactation after childbirth. Oxytocin levels in the mother start increasing in the third trimester and reach a peak(300%-400%) during the labor pain. 3
Oxytocin levels were also raised in the cerebrospinal fluid during labor, indicating that oxytocin is released into the brain, as well as into the circulation. Oxytocin released into the brain induces beneficial adaptive effects during birth and postpartum.
As the child is given to the mother, due to the highest levels of Oxytocin in her life, she bonds with the child with no one else, because Oxytocin is our attachment hormone. The same goes for the child.
Subsequently, every time the mother feeds the child, her Oxytocin level rises, increasing the bonding between the mother and the child.
Insight💡
Children born out of the C-section experiences less love in their life because they can handle lower stress due to the lower cortisol cut-off level that occurs during childbirth. Similarly, mothers who are highly androgenic(more testosterone and adrenaline) have lower Oxytocin levels and therefore experience less love. Mothers who do not breastfeed their babies, do not get to experience high levels of Oxytocin, and therefore experience less attachment with the child and the others.
It is due to this complex sequential phenomenon of the rise of cortisol and Oxytocin, followed by the rise of dopamine in the mother and the child, love is the hormonal snapshot in the child throughout the process of childbirth to first breastfeeding.
Because the process of birth is a journey of the child from intrauterine to extrauterine space, and thereafter a pathophysiological change, followed by another experience of calming down of the body of the child, and another experience of sucking the milk of the mother, Love is an emotion, not a feeling.
We can now summarize the emotion of love as the hormonal transition from the extreme stress of near-death experience, to the extreme rise of dopamine levels, followed by extremely high Oxytocin levels.
(An Emotional Joruney of Fear of Death to Relief of Being Alive followed by an Extraordinary Attachment With an Individual during the journey)
Once a woman becomes a mother, she hardly can experience this emotional rollercoaster in any other relationship, including her partner, and therefore more often or not, even the strongest of the attachments between two partners weakens after childbirth.