Word: childbirth
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...scientist, he embraced the logic of hypnobirthing: if women are terrified of childbirth, the fight-or-flight reflex kicks in once the contractions start. This reflex shuts down organs that are nonessential to fighting and fleeing, including the uterus. With reduced blood flow, the uterus cramps, causing pain. If women could relax, the theory goes, they would experience no pain, have more effective contractions and therefore a shorter labor...
...wasn't an easy convert to hypnobirthing. For a start, hypnosis made me think of a traveling showman inducing an audience member to dance like a chicken. On top of that, my mother, her mother, every mother I'd ever met had drummed into me that childbirth was agony. Pain-free labor? Yeah, right. But my husband Alex--a doctor who sniggered every time my prenatal-yoga video urged me to open up like a lotus blossom--was hypnobirthing's unlikely champion...
Endocrinologists have known for years that oxytocin, released by the pituitary gland, ovaries and testes, helps trigger childbirth contractions, milk production during nursing and the pelvic shudders women experience during orgasm (and possibly the contractions during male orgasm as well). The hormone is believed to play a vital role in mother-child bonding and may do the same for new fathers: oxytocin surges when a new dad holds his bundle of joy. Some researchers also think of oxytocin as a cuddle chemical. Preliminary studies by psychiatrist Kathleen Light at the University of North Carolina have found that oxytocin levels rise...
...understanding of the biochemistry of arousal, as well as advances in imaging techniques, doctors are closing in on some possibilities. Their efforts are leading them to the hormone oxytocin, which may be the key lubricant for the machinery of sex. Known for controlling the muscles of the uterus during childbirth, oxytocin surges up to five times as high as its normal blood level during orgasm. Studies in animals have also revealed oxytocin's softer side. It is responsible for helping individuals forge strong emotional bonds, earning its moniker as the cuddle hormone. Released in the brain, oxytocin works...
...higher maternal death rate and are more susceptible to obesity and hypertension as adults than those who delayed motherhood even into their 20s. For women who do have abortions, according to Planned Parenthood, “serious, long term emotional problems are rare, and less frequent than with childbirth.” And is it truly in the best interest of the child? Children of teenage parents are more likely to have health problems, to perform poorly in school, and to experience abuse and neglect than children of older parents, as the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy points...