When this post first went live, I was flying to The Netherlands in order to speak at the Less is More … Oxytocine conference. It seemed like a great time to collate a few of the oxytocin-related resources here on my website, both for participants at the conference and also for anyone else who might find them useful, and we have kept it updated ever since, so here goes…
First and most recently, a review looking at why spontaneous physiological labour and birth is beneficial.
I’ve also written about the benefits of spontaneous labour in In Your Own Time:
I share a fun way of understanding this in this blog post, about cats and labour.
A Tribute to Tricia’s Lab Cats
Exogenous oxytocin
Many women are given exogenous oxytocin during labour and birth. Exogenous simply means that it comes from outside the body, rather than being made within it. It’s the same molecule but the origin is important. That’s because exogenous oxytocin doesn’t have all the positive effects of oxytocin made by the woman’s own body, and it has downsides too.
Two of the key indications for oxytocin are induction of labour and the birth of the placenta – are such big topics that I already have resource pages on them:
I’ve also written books on both of these topics:
More on synthetic oxytocin
And even more importantly, some information and ideas about physiological labour and birth, and for promoting the flow of a woman’s own oxytocin:
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