After reading the article "Ecstatic Birth: The Hormonal Blueprint of Labor" by Sarah J. Buckley, that was posted on Mothering.com this week, I have been doing a lot of thinking about the birth of my son over a year ago. He was born in a hospital with the assistance of an OB/GYN and it was NOT an ecstatic birth. I've been enlightened in many ways over the last year and DH and I are pro-homebirth for the next baby. Especially, after reading this article and my exposure to "Mothering" mamas.
Here's what I really want to know: If anyone out there that has had an "ecstatic birth" can share their experience with us in regard to how you feel your ecstatic birth has enhanced your child's overall well-being, intelligence, your bond to them, and are they a high need or mellow baby/child? I'm not sure how you would know how if the birth is one of the factors involved in your child's overall health, etc. unless you could go back and NOT have an ecstatic birth, so all this is just speculation, of course. But an interesting question, IMHO. I'm also assuming that "ecstatic birthers" are co-sleeping, breastfeeding, and attachment parenting their children.
Link to article http://www.mothering.com/11-0-0/html...ic-birth.shtml Here are a few excerpts from the article that are related to my wonderings:
"... when these activations do not occur within about 45 minutes of birth, "cut off from his mother's nurturing and with none of the encoded expectancies met, the newborn's adrenals continue to release steroids in the face of maximum fear and abandonment. The infant screams for a short time and then silence falls." The damage caused by separation, Pearce writes, is "massive and past the point of repair." Like Odent, he believes that our current birth practices are psychologically crippling to babies, mothers, and society as a whole, and the evidence in his book Evolution's End: Reclaiming the Potential of Our Intelligence is compelling."
"As for the baby, Many experts believe that through participating in this initiation of his own birth, the fetus may be training himself to secrete his own love hormone.34 Michel Odent speaks passionately about our society's deficits in our capacity to love self and others, and he traces these problems back to the time around birth, particularly to interference with the oxytocin system."
"This study was recently replicated with a US population, with very similar results.41 The authors of the first study suggest an imprinting mechanism, but I wonder whether it may be a matter of ecstasy: if we don't get it at birth, as we expect, we look for it later in life through drugs. Perhaps this also explains the popularity (and the name) of the drug Ecstasy."
Thanks, mamas!
Here's what I really want to know: If anyone out there that has had an "ecstatic birth" can share their experience with us in regard to how you feel your ecstatic birth has enhanced your child's overall well-being, intelligence, your bond to them, and are they a high need or mellow baby/child? I'm not sure how you would know how if the birth is one of the factors involved in your child's overall health, etc. unless you could go back and NOT have an ecstatic birth, so all this is just speculation, of course. But an interesting question, IMHO. I'm also assuming that "ecstatic birthers" are co-sleeping, breastfeeding, and attachment parenting their children.
Link to article http://www.mothering.com/11-0-0/html...ic-birth.shtml Here are a few excerpts from the article that are related to my wonderings:
"... when these activations do not occur within about 45 minutes of birth, "cut off from his mother's nurturing and with none of the encoded expectancies met, the newborn's adrenals continue to release steroids in the face of maximum fear and abandonment. The infant screams for a short time and then silence falls." The damage caused by separation, Pearce writes, is "massive and past the point of repair." Like Odent, he believes that our current birth practices are psychologically crippling to babies, mothers, and society as a whole, and the evidence in his book Evolution's End: Reclaiming the Potential of Our Intelligence is compelling."
"As for the baby, Many experts believe that through participating in this initiation of his own birth, the fetus may be training himself to secrete his own love hormone.34 Michel Odent speaks passionately about our society's deficits in our capacity to love self and others, and he traces these problems back to the time around birth, particularly to interference with the oxytocin system."
"This study was recently replicated with a US population, with very similar results.41 The authors of the first study suggest an imprinting mechanism, but I wonder whether it may be a matter of ecstasy: if we don't get it at birth, as we expect, we look for it later in life through drugs. Perhaps this also explains the popularity (and the name) of the drug Ecstasy."
Thanks, mamas!
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