C-Section Alienates Moms from Babies

progressive

(Sun, 7 Sep 2008 12:46:47 -0500 (CDT)) --- (Unsurprisingly, no mention of medical culpability here, it's the
mother who is to be assigned or spared any "guilt." And so we
continue with this unprecedented experiment in mass human trauma
imprinting)

C-Section Affects Moms' Response to Baby WebMD

www.webmd.com

Study Shows Women Who Have C-Sections May Be Less Responsive to
Baby's Cries By Denise Mann WebMD Health News Reviewed by Louise
Chang, MD Sept. 4, 2008 -- Moms who deliver naturally may be more
responsive to their newborn's cries than women who deliver via
cesarean section, a study shows.

But experts caution that women who have C-sections should not feel
like failures as mothers because they did not deliver vaginally.
In recent years, the rate of C-section delivery in the U.S. has
increased from about 4.5% of all deliveries in 1965 to 29.1% in
2006, according to information cited in the study.

The study is published in the October issue of the Journal of Child
Psychology and Psychiatry.

"Just because moms who deliver vaginally respond better to their
infant's cries does not mean they are better parents," says researcher
James E. Swain, MD, PhD, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the
Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn. "Other factors
play a role, including the whole lifetime experience of the mother,
the presence of a supportive father, as well as other socioeconomic
and cultural factors."

The researchers used brain scans called functional magnetic resonance
imaging (fMRI) on 12 new moms two to four weeks following delivery
to determine if the type of delivery affected how responsive they
were to their newborn's cries.

The Role of Oxytocin The six women who delivered vaginally showed
more activity in certain areas of the brain linked to emotions and
parenting behaviors compared to the six moms who had elective
C-sections. The researchers suggest that vaginal birth stimulates
the more rapid release of the "love hormone" oxytocin.

Oxytocin is released during active labor and delivery. It's been
shown to be a factor in mother-child bonding.

Some research has linked C-section delivery with higher rates of
postpartum depression, and this may be due to the discrepancies in
oxytocin release. None of the women in the new study developed
postpartum depression. The initial study was three weeks in duration,
but unpublished, follow-up data spanning three to four months showed
that the differences between the moms on MRI is less marked.

"Don't panic or think you did the wrong thing by having a C-section
because it may be that these differences are just in the initial
phases and it may take the oxytocin awhile to build up after a
C-section delivery. Or maybe C-section moms may make up for it later
with normal cuddling and hugging and nursing," Swain says. Breastfeeding
is known to stimulate the release of oxytocin.

Going forward, the new findings may help doctors develop a screening
test for risk of postpartum depression. "We can monitor the mother
and father to see if certain brain areas are not as responsive to
baby stimuli and then they can be a little more closely monitored
and offered more support due to increased risk of depression," Swain
says.

Second Opinion Calling the new study "a fascinating way of looking
at the correlation between behavior and brain function," Manju
Monga, MD, professor and division director of maternal-fetal medicine
at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston,
cautions that there are no definitive studies linking C-section
delivery to higher rates of postpartum depression.

"The biggest stimulator of oxytocin release is breastfeeding," she
says, which is unaffected by mode of delivery. "Maternal infant
bonding has been shown to be associated with how long a mother is
separated from their infant from birth and whether they initiate
nursing right away. So rather than worry about mode of delivery,
tell your physician that you want to room-in with the baby. And if
you are planning to nurse, put baby to your breast in the recovery
room," Monga suggests.

"These are very interesting preliminary results," says Donnica
Moore, MD, a women's health expert based in Far Hills, N.J. "This
study is not going to influence a doctor's recommendation for a
C-section vs. a vaginal delivery. And there is big leap between
cause and effect."

"The new findings may contribute to the feelings of women who have
had C-section that they may have failed by not having a natural,
vaginal delivery," she says. "The goal of labor and delivery is a
healthy mother and a healthy baby."

linda bennett (lbennett649@yahoo.com).

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