Have you ever wondered why some women have horror stories about their painful natural births, while other women describe having great natural births? Have you ever wondered why some women describe their births as “beautiful” or “healing” or “magical?” There’s no secret formula for having a great birth. But I’m convinced that allowing your hormones to function as uninterruptedly as possible is a crucial part of a great birth. Let’s talk about four hormones you need to know about during labor.
We’re going to discuss these hormones and what they do today. Then we’ll follow up with a part 2 to talk about how to leverage these hormones to help your body labor effectively.
Hormones are much more powerful than we give them credit for. In fact, Pitocin, the medicine that most hospitals use to induce labor, is actually a synthetic version of oxytocin. In other words, it’s a manmade version of one of the most powerful hormones in the human body. (You can read this post to understand more about how to stimulate oxytocin production and naturally induce labor.)
Hormones You Need to Know About During Labor
While researchers have learned a lot about hormones during childbirth, we have so much left to learn. I’m going to keep the discussion pretty simple on the blog here. Most of my research comes from this article, which was published in 2015. If you’d like an in-depth dive, feel free to head over to read that article.
We’re going to focus on four types of hormones: oxytocin, beta-endorphins, adrenalin, and prolactin.
Oxytocin: The love hormone
Oxytocin is one of the biggest players in labor, but it also plays a huge role in everyday life for everyone. It’s known as the “love hormone,” because it’s present at high levels during orgasm and immediately afterwards. That warm, close, relaxed feeling after orgasm happens because our bodies are flooded with oxytocin.
During labor, oxytocin does a lot of things:
- Stimulates uterine contractions to begin labor
- Provides the “pushing reflex” at transition
- Helps make subsequent births easier than a first-time birth
- Helps mom to associate taking care of baby with relaxation and pleasure after birth
- Promotes mother-baby bonding after birth (especially during skin-to-skin time)
- Decreases blood loss after birth
- Helps mom’s brain to stay calm and relaxed during postpartum
- Helps to strengthen the effects of the other hormones we’re about to talk about
Beta-Endorphins: the painkiller hormone
Beta-endorphins are actually a group of hormones. The word endorphine comes from two words. “Endo” comes from the word “endogenous,” which means “natural” or “self-produced.” The word part “-orphine” comes from the medication morphine, which is a strong painkiller. So the word endorphin literally means “natural painkiller.” This really is one of those hormones you need to know during labor!
Have you ever been in a high-stress situation, like a car accident, where you suffered an injury but didn’t feel the pain until later? That’s because your body released beta-endorphins to “turn off” the pain until your body felt safe enough to feel pain again.
Beta-endorphins are crazy powerful. One study showed that beta endorphines are 18-33 times more powerful than morphine. That’s wild!
Beta-endorphins also have a lot of roles to play during labor and afterwards:
- Increase as labor intensity increases
- Can help to relax mom (similar to a drug-induced high) to help cope with stress and pain
- Helps protect baby’s brain from damage if blood oxygen levels drop
- Peaks (with oxytocin) after birth to help mom associate baby with love, happiness, and connection
- Is present in colostrum (newborn breastmilk) to help baby adjust to life outside the womb
Adrenaline: the fight-or-flight hormone
Most people know what adrenaline is – it’s that hormone that gets your heart pumping and your breathing more shallow. It’s the feeling of excitement and invincibility after you get off a roller coaster. Adrenaline is the superhero hormone. It allows us to run faster or fight harder when we or someone we love is in danger.
Adrenaline and its partner hormone, noradrenaline, actually play a big role during labor. These hormones will actually stop labor if a mother feels threatened or unsafe in early labor. However, the opposite is true in transition or late labor. If a mother feels unsafe during late labor, adrenaline can actually cause labor to speed up.
In normal labor, researchers have found that a mother’s adrenaline levels naturally rise during transition. This helps with several things.
First, adrenaline triggers more effective contractions. In fact, researchers believe that there may be some link between high levels of adrenaline at transition and the fetal ejection reflex. (This is that phenomenon where a woman’s body starts creating powerful, involuntary, effective contractions.) Second, adrenaline can help to improve mom’s mood and bonding with baby after birth.
Adrenaline during late labor has a lot of benefits for baby, too, including
- Maintaining bloodflow to baby’s brain and heart (protects against brain damage during birth)
- Helps baby to cough and breathe well immediately after birth
- Stabilizes baby’s metabolism as he/she adjusts to life outside the womb
- Helps baby to be more alert for successful breastfeeding and bonding after birth.
After birth, adrenaline levels drop sharply in both mom and baby.
Prolactin: the bonding hormone
Prolactin is also important to the labor and delivery process. During early pregnancy, high levels of prolactin help to decrease stress. This hormone increases throughout pregnancy and prepares a woman’s body for breastfeeding. As birth approaches, however, prolactin levels drop steeply. They will rise again as the woman’s body prepares to go into labor.
Prolactin works hand-in-hand with oxytocin to create effective contractions. Prolactin stays elevated after labor, which helps with bonding and ongoing breastmilk production. Researchers have also documented that high levels of prolactin immediately after birth help prevent mood disorders for days or weeks afterward.
Putting it All Together
Okay, that was a lot, I know! But here’s a chart representation if you, like me, prefer visual learning. Keep in mind that the numbers on the chart are relative; this chart is simply intended to show how each hormone level shifts throughout labor and birth.
The Takeaway
In summary, there are four hormones you need to know about as you prepare for labor.
- Oxytocin (the love hormone)
- Beta-endorphins (the natural painkillers)
- Adrenaline (the fight-or-flight hormone)
- Prolactin (the bonding hormone)
I want you to walk away from this article knowing several things.
- Our bodies really are equipped to handle labor and birth
- Part of a great natural birth is allowing our hormones to work as they’re designed to.
- There are things we can do during labor (or put on a birth plan) that can help our hormones function uninterruptedly.
We’ll be back with part 2 next week!
Until next time,
Lynette