(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.)
Welcome to the birth prep podcast. I'm Taylor, your birth bestie, who's here to support you as you plan and prepare for the unmedicated birth of your dreams. If you're ready to ditch the fear, conquer the hospital hustle, support that bump and bod, and walk into the delivery room like the HGIC you were born to be, then buckle up, babe.
This is where it all goes down. Hello, hello, and welcome back to the birth prep podcast. Today, I wanted to take some time to talk about the hormones that run your birth experience.
I don't think I've really talked about this much on the podcast, but I know it's like sometimes we'll talk about oxytocin and maybe a little bit about endorphins, but this is something that I cover inside the birth prep course and something that I really think is essential for laying the groundwork for understanding what your body is going to be doing the day of and how to best support it. Now I have the birth prep course broken up into three sections. I have the groundwork, the nitty gritty, and the big day.
And laying the groundwork is just very basic stuff of like understanding. It's not basic in the way that it's like common knowledge and it's something everybody should know and does know. Like I would assert that your OB could use my course, but I mean basic in the way like it's like the basic foundation.
It's what we're building the birth prep on. If you don't have that basic groundwork, that foundation of things, it's going to be hard to start building walls and start building out rooms and adding furniture and all that stuff when it's like, okay, there's nothing to put it on. Like you don't even know why you're doing the things you're doing and it's not going to make sense to you.
So it's really important. So I wanted to cover it here on the podcast. We're going to talk about the four hormones that are present during your birth experience and that are, you know, key players to running the show.
Birth isn't just about your uterus working really hard. It's a whole body, whole mind hormonal event, something your body is physiologically wired to do. Those four hormones are oxytocin, the love hormone, endorphins, which are your body's natural pain relief.
Praise the Lord for that. Adrenaline, the fight or flight hormone, and prolactin, the mothering hormone. We're going to break them down one by one and talk about how to maximize the good ones and keep the tricky ones in check.
Oxytocin is like the MVP of labor. It triggers the contractions. It helps your labor progress and it creates bonding and euphoria with your babe.
You've probably heard of Pitocin, AKA oxytocin's evil twin, when the need for Pitocin, I'm using air quotes, I know you can't see me, but the need for Pitocin arises, you're going to be sold on the outcome, which it gets the same outcome as oxytocin. It triggers contractions and helps labor progress, but do not be deceived, baby. They do not work the same.
Two totally different experiences. And Pitocin actually blocks the natural production of oxytocin. I am not going to get on a Pitocin rant right now, but look into it before deciding if that's something you want to implement or not.
Make a wise decision for yourself and for your baby from an informed place, please. Cause it's not all about the destination. It's about the ride and oxytocin is the love boat and the Pitocin is like the tower of terror.
So how are we actually going to boost the oxytocin during our labor experience? Great question. I'm so glad you asked. First, you're going to stay in your love bubble, kiss your partner, laugh, snuggle, massage, whatever your body is releasing oxytocin when you feel safe, warm, and loved.
Another thing you can do is dim the lights and minimize interruptions. Harsh lighting and constant monitoring can block oxytocin flow. Think cozy and calm.
Okay. Think about this, honestly. Okay.
Let's go there. Okay. Let's just go there.
Think about sex. Okay. If you are trying to get in the mood, trying to get it on with your husband and someone keeps walking in, what is that going to do to your mood? Like, honestly, truly, what's that going to do? You are going to be stressed out.
You're going to be wanting to just stop altogether. Okay. Let's not even try this.
Let's try this later. Same thing. When people are constantly interrupting your birth space, constantly asking you questions that do not need to be asked of you right now, constantly interrupting all that stuff, the monitors, there's wires hanging everywhere, all of that, that is disruptive to the oxytocin flow.
And when oxytocin is literally what's the driving force behind your labor experience, that's a problem. So think cozy and calm. If you need to tape a black Sharpied keep out sign on your hospital door, do it.
Set the expectation of minimal interruptions, dim lights, you know, quiet, cozy, calm vibes, and then prepare your team to help you follow through with that. Another way that you can boost oxytocin is stimulating your nipples. It might sound weird if you don't know about it, but nipple stimulation actually releases oxytocin and can help kickstart or strengthen contractions.
It's seen as like one of the only natural, and I'm using air quotes again, I know you can't see them, but natural induction methods. And I say that it's like the method of the induction is natural. Sure.
It's not using a medication and things like that, but induction isn't natural. Just, just throwing that out there. But if you're at the hospital, labor has stalled.
It might just be the thing that gets things going again. Maybe things aren't going as fast as your doctors would like. And they're talking about Pitocin.
You're like, no, wait, hang on. I've got some tools in my tool bag. This can be one of them.
On the opposite side, we have things that kill oxytocin production, which is stress, fear, feeling watched bright lights, chaotic environment, and Pitocin, which we've already touched on the artificial oxytocin actually blocks natural oxytocin production. Crazy. And I know a lot of you are having your babies in the hospital, but this is one of the main reasons why I have my babies at home is because of oxytocin flow and oxytocin flows best when you are feeling safe and calm in your own environment, where you feel most comfortable with the people that you love the most.
I'm not saying you should have a home birth. I'm saying you should take this information and say, how can I make my hospital birth, which is where I'm choosing to give birth. How can I make it feel more like home to me? I actually have a podcast episode that I did recently called home birth vibes in the hospital.
And if this is one of your goals, check it out. There's a lot of great, awesome tips in there to help you do that. Next player on the hormone roster is endorphins, nature's epidural, if you will, but without all the yucky gross side effects, praise the Lord.
Endorphins reduce your pain perception and can help create that dreamy, like in the zone labor state. When I tell you during my last labor, I was feeling good. It's because endorphins were there hanging out with me.
I mean, endorphins in Jesus, but we're talking about hormones today. So how can we boost endorphins? First is rhythmic movement, swaying, rocking, bouncing to help your body release the endorphins. We have breath work and vocalization.
So like low, deep sounds like guttural moaning, humming, they can help stimulate that release as well. And hydrotherapy, getting in a warm bath or a shower can actually double your endorphin production. Isn't that crazy? I always used to think it was just because the warm water like made your body feel good.
It's like you get in the water and it's like, it relieves it from the outside. No, it literally creates an amazing experience inside your body. Hormonally crazy, mind-blowing.
I know not all hospitals have tubs available, but if you can get in a shower, that will really help. And then you can just enjoy those extra endorphins. Let's talk about what kills endorphins, tension and resistance.
So fighting contractions instead of relaxing into them, even tension and resistance in the room can contribute to killing those endorphins. So having to argue your points and plan with your provider or your nurse. So I strongly suggest delegating the advocating task to someone on your birth support team.
Panic and fear also crush endorphins. They replace endorphins with the stress hormones, which we don't want. Too much adrenaline makes those endorphins run for the hills.
We're going to talk more about that in just a second. But this is why I talk about the fear, tension, pain cycle, because when panic and fear and tension and resistance, when those things are present, it's no wonder we're feeling more pain because endorphins aren't able to do their job. And then pain enters the chat and where you're like, okay, we're five centimeters and it's this bad already.
That makes you more scared. There's more tension because now you're trying to fight the contractions that are trying to work for you. And then it creates more pain and then it goes around and around and around.
It's a little self-fulfilling cycle. And if you don't understand this cycle, you are not going to know how to handle it that day. The goal is to let endorphins do their job and they cannot do their job if tension and fear and panic and resistance and all that stuff is entering the chat because that's when adrenaline enters the chat.
Let's talk about that. Adrenaline is a hormone that is an important player in the birth experience, but only at a very specific point. If it's shown its head before it's time, it can quite literally stall your labor.
Adrenaline is a stress hormone and it prepares your body for fight or flight mode. It's like when your body is in survival, it can literally slow or stop your labor, but it gives you a burst of energy in the final pushing stage. So how do we keep it low until you need it? Create a calm, private, and safe space.
Your body needs to feel unobserved to labor effectively. Breathe deeply and stay loose. Shallow breathing and tense muscles tell your body there is danger and limit the negative energy as much as you can.
A tense provider or an unsupportive birth team can spike your adrenaline and slow down your labor, so choose your people wisely. Feeling watched or judged, being told you're not progressing fast enough, being startled or rushed or forced into interventions, feeling out of control, feeling like everything is happening to you. These are things that can totally spike adrenaline way too early.
In the final stage of labor, pushing, adrenaline naturally rises to give you energy and alertness, so do not be afraid to ride that wave. Thank God it naturally happens. You don't even have to do anything about it.
You just have to keep it low until it's time and your body will do that work for you. So those are the main players during your birth experience, but before I wrap this up today, I wanted to touch a little bit on prolactin. This is the bonding and breastfeeding hormone.
It helps with milk production, it supports mother and baby bonding, and it creates a sense of peace and fulfillment after birth. This is a hormone that quite literally can set you up for success with your baby, especially if you have plans to breastfeed. So we are boosting this with immediate skin-to-skin contact, so holding your baby right after birth spikes your prolactin levels and encourages breastfeeding.
We want an undisturbed golden hour. The more time you spend holding and snuggling baby, the higher your prolactin levels. And breastfeeding on demand.
Every latch reinforces your body's hormonal cycle. There are a few things that I just wanted to warn you about and think about like as you're making your plan and stuff about what disrupts this prolactin is separation from baby right after birth, and I understand that that happens sometimes, but if it can be avoided at all costs, keep that baby on you as much as possible. They can do all the Apgar scores right on your chest.
Make sure that you are getting to hold your baby. Say, hey, listen, I'm having baby. Do what you need to do, but also leave us alone.
Stress and unnecessary interventions can also really dull that prolactin, and because our bodies cycle through hormones, prolactin is disrupted when we delay our breastfeeding initiation. It's kind of like when you start weaning baby, right? Like baby starts off as a newborn getting like 12 feeds a day, right? It's like every two to three hours, and then as they grow older, they go less and less. I'm like when my kids were like a year old, it was like maybe four to six times a day, and then slowly and surely it gets less and less and less, and that prolactin stops producing because that cycle is being disrupted, and it's further apart and further apart and further apart, and then eventually there's no more milk production because there's no more prolactin present.
So I wanted to touch on that because I know a lot of you are becoming mothers for the first time, or maybe you just want to do it a lot better this time, which is totally fair. I keep trying to do better and better than I did last time, and that's a noble goal, and I'm here to help you do as best as you can. So now that you know how these hormones work, here's your game plan for keeping them flowing in harmony.
We want harmonious hormones. Create a peaceful, low-stress birth space, dim the lights, play music, minimize distractions, cut out noise, whatever you need, lean into love and safety, hug your partner, hold hands, use familiar comforts, things that already bring love and safety, bring those, pack them in your hospital bag, and utilize them the day of. You're going to move rhythmically and breathe deeply.
You're going to stay loose. We're going to sway. We're going to trust our body.
We're going to move with our body, work with it, give it what it needs in the moment, switching positions, just really getting into the zone of listening to our body and giving it what it's asking for. And then we're going to shut out negativity, whether it's an unsupportive provider, unnecessary monitoring, or fear-based comments. You need to protect your peace.
It is so important. We want to avoid adrenaline at all costs. Let your body do what it was made to do.
Your hormones already know the way. Honestly, truly, the design of our bodies for this process, when you're actually able to witness the process, because this is very, very rarely the case. Now, do you see where the hormones and like how these operate and how these function and what stops those hormones? It's like the typical hospital space is not set up for a physiological birth experience.
Forget all the interventions. Forget everything else. It's like the experience itself, the bright lights, the sterile hospital rooms, the beeping monitors, all the wires, all of that stuff, the hospital bed, the no home comforts, all of that, it makes sense that we very rarely see physiological births inside of the hospital.
But when we understand how our bodies are functioning, we can better create a space that is more suited to support those functions. Your body just works best when you create the right environment for it. When you work with your hormones instead of against them, you're setting yourself up for a smoother and faster labor.
You're setting yourself up for less pain and more ease, a peaceful and connected birth experience during and after. So I love that you're here listening to this laying some serious groundwork today. Look at you.
You've got this mama. Your body is wired for birth. And these hormones are here to help you every single step of the way.
This is just a drop in the bucket of the groundwork that we lay inside the birth prep course. I have a structured framework in there that is going to help you lay the foundation for this and help you build upon it so that you're actually prepared to pull off your unmedicated birth in the hospital. I will put the link in the show notes for the birth prep course if you're interested in enrolling.
It's actually the perfect time to join because on Friday during my free event, I'm actually going to be sharing this super top secret awesome thing that I've been working on. I'm going to be giving it to all my students for free. I really want to see you guys succeed.
And I'm always trying to think of new ways to help you get there. But that's the only information I'm giving you. It's top secret.
You'll have to come to my event to check it out. And if you're not coming to my event, I'm going to put the link in the show notes for your free ticket. Three mistakes that can sabotage your unmedicated birth.
I would love to have you. This stuff is really important to be talking about. I cannot wait to dish it all out, tell you all about how to avoid those mistakes and how to set yourself up for success now during your pregnancy.
Thanks so much for being here. I hope you learned something new today. I will talk with you guys again on Thursday.
Until then, happy prepping.
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.)
