All You Need Is Love...

We’ve all heard the song lyrics but what has love  got to do with labour and birth and is it all we need?

Love comes from a space where we feel safe, supported and confident, that we are respected, listened to and understood. In social settings when we feel loved or when we cuddle up with our partners our bodies produce a hormone called oxytocin. Often referred to as the hormone of love, oxytocin plays an essential role in labour; it is the signal to the uterus that our body and baby are ready for birth. It’s also one of the contributing factors to how you became pregnant in the first place (wink wink).

In labour oxytocin works alongside our bodies own naturally occurring pain relief, endorphins, to maintain and build the surges (contractions) of the uterus which, when left uninterrupted eventually birth our babies. Uninterrupted was the key word in that sentence, when a woman comes from a place of calmness and love her hormones support her body and she can birth without assistance (most of the time anyway).

Fear on the other hand comes from a place of anxiety, when we do not feel safe or supported, when we are suddenly told something might be wrong, that plans need to change. Fear manifests itself in the body as a fight or flight reaction, our bodies produce a hormone called Adrenalin which forces blood to rush from all other areas of the body into our arms and legs. Adrenalin raises our heart rate and clouds our ability to think straight. Fight or Flight is about survival, it gives us a head start in getting out of the situation or physically protecting ourselves if necessary. In labour and birth, the introduction of fear and Adrenalin to the flow of oxytocin and endorphins changes the pattern of surges and can slow down and even stop labour from progressing.

There may be times when we need to listen to advice and suggestions from medical professionals but even this can be done from a place of confidence, knowledge and trust. Our plans may need to change last minute but if this happens from a place of love and not fear, we are doing everything we can to support our birthing bodies. Call it love or just a chemical and hormonal reaction in the body, at a basic level this state of being is really all our birthing bodies need. So it seems in this case the Beatles got it right, “Love is all you need, Love is all you need”.