OXYTOCIN ROCKS

I am overwhelmed with love for my infant daughter. I am CRAZY about her. This week I've had a particularly bad case of the Vannies. I can barely stand it, she's so adorable. I've taken to hugging her and kissing her on her phat baby cheeks, over and over again. I can't help it! My heart feels like it's busting out of my chest like the Grinch's new heart. Surely Nessa is undergoing another growth spurt and my oxytocin levels are skyrocketing.

On Wednesday we went to our mothers & babies group and from there to an executive board meeting. I had a bottle of breast milk with us for the meeting. Nessa didn't care. After 30 minutes of being cute, she had had enough of the agenda. It was time for her snack and nap. The bottle, however, was a foe she didn't have patience for.

After roaming the building jiggling and jostling my howling Monkey Princess, capturing the worried attention of every single mental health professional there, I wound up nursing Van in the office of the Executive Director. That's all she wanted. After 20 minutes we slipped quietly back into the board meeting, Nessa asleep in my arms, only to find it had ended early. So I wedged the sleepy monkey into her carseat which of course resulted in more blood chilling cries, and apologized repeatedly on the drive home, promising I'd take care of her properly just as soon as we got there.

Once home, we sat still on the couch in the quiet so Nessers could eat and fall asleep. I didn't budge an inch. She nursed til she crashed then she slept hard. My oxytocin levels must've been soaring.

Sitting there for 3 hours straight I realized I am the luckiest girl alive. There is nowhere I'd rather be, nothing I'd rather be doing than caring for her.

Oxytocin is passed to the baby through skin-to-skin contact. Remember how Daddio was there for the kangaroo-hold in the NICU that first night? If Nessa hadn't been in the NICU, which is open all night, Daddy would not have been able to spend that time with her past visiting hours.

And yes, dads have oxytocin, too.

Here are excerpts from the following website on oxytocin...

http://www.jbaassoc.demon.co.uk/watch/news%20bonding%20matters.html

"As long as contact with the infant remains, oxytocin causes mother to be more caring, to be more eager to please others, to become more sensitive to other's feelings, and to recognize nonverbal cues more readily. Continued nursing also enhances this effect."

"With high oxytocin, mother's priorities become altered and her brain no longer signals her to groom and adorn herself in order to obtain a mate, and thus a pregnancy. Now that the child has already been created, mom's grooming habits are directed toward baby."

"High oxytocin in the female has also been shown to promote preference for whatever male is present during its surges (one good reason for dad to hang around during and after the birth). Prolonged high oxytocin in mother, father, or baby also promotes lower blood pressure and reduced heart rate as well as certain kinds of artery repair, actually reducing lifelong risk of heart disease."

Nursing is good, as we all know:

"Although baby makes her own oxytocin in response to nursing, mother also transfers it to the infant in her milk. This provision serves to promote continuous relaxation and closeness for both mother and baby."

All nurturing touch is essential, of course:

"Persistent regular body contact and other nurturing acts by parents produce a constant, elevated level of oxytocin in the infant, which in turn provides a valuable reduction in the infant's stress-hormone responses. Multiple psychology studies have demonstrated that, depending on the practices of the parents, the resulting high or low level of oxytocin will control the permanent organization of the stress-handling portion of the baby's brain ..."

For more reading on oxytocin you can check here:

http://www.oxytocin.org/oxytoc/index.html
http://www.unassistedchildbirth.com/miscarticles/attachmentparenting.html