Monday
09Oct
Beta-Endorphin… A Shared Experience Between Mother & Baby
Monday, October 9, 2006 at 05:54PM By Patricia Couch, PattyCake Birthing Services
Birth is seldom without pain. The majority of women experience labor pains at some point in their labor. With the increasing intensity of labor, beta-endorphin increases in the mother’s body to giving her the natural coping skills designed to help her endure her labor experience. Ultimately leading to the blissful euphoric feeling right after the baby is born.
Between 80%-90% of women in the United States are choosing to use pain management drugs during labor and birth. By choosing to use analgesia to remove the pain of labor the beta-endorphin does not continue to increase as they are natural designed to do, like it does in an un-medicated birth. So in a sense removing the pain of labor often removes the pleasure as well as altering a very normal and natural process.
Looking at this birthing endorphin from the baby’s perspective may alter many women’s choices to opt for analgesia during labor and birth. As the mother’s uterus contracts and her pelvic bones move to make space for the baby, the baby’s head is also changing shape to fit through the birth canal followed by the body. The birthing process is a shared experience by mother and baby. The beta-endorphin builds during labor helping the mother to cope with her pain, even alter her at times, and connecting her to a safe instinctual birth. The same beta-endorphin crosses the placenta and helps the baby to cope with its pain in the labor and birth ultimately leading it to a gentler birth experience for that baby.
Birth is a very natural and normal biologic process for women and babies. By trusting and understanding different aspects of this perfect design and having good support the majority of woman can give birth naturally and un-medicated. Sharing the birth experience is one of the closest and most amazing experiences a mother and baby will ever have. Embracing and protecting birth is a choice. Making educated decisions for our children is essential to a more peaceful world.
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