“… all physical functions are affected by what is going on in our minds. Breathing, digestion, elimination of waste, heart rate and blood pressure, and in labour uterine function, are profoundly affected by emotions, beliefs and relationships. It has been known for a long time that stress can make labour slow down or stop altogether, and cause uterine incoordination and excessive pain.” Shiela Kitzinger
Connection, compassion, gentleness, a kind word, a quiet presence, calm and caring support… these are some of the ways love shows up in birth’s journey. And love matters. Love supports the very process of birth. Love is key in birth’s outcomes. And love is part of the difference that a doula makes.
The one sentence summary of the physiological effects of feeling safe in birth is that love is a vital part of labour and birth. And it isn’t just the doula in me that wants to share that message loudly with the world – science backs it up as well. Birth is better when it happens in a space the birthing person feels safe in, when they’re surrounded by loving, caring support, and when the innate ‘tend and befriend’ response (and the cascade of birthing hormones) can be nurtured. This matters in home births, in hospital births, when labour is induced, when birth starts on its own, and when birth is surgical.
Feeling safe is intricately related to the progress of labour. Both historically and currently, those who study birth and birthing women’s experiences find that the results of not feeling safe (i.e. fear, tension and anxiety) lead to a ‘cascade of interventions’ rather than the cascade of oxytocin and other neurochemicals that so positively influence the labour process. Women’s innate ‘tend and befriend’ response instead becomes one of ‘fight and flight’.
Twenty-first century research calls for a return to the circle of care that was historically present for women giving birth, and for the relational support that facilitates physiologic birth. Researchers appeal to caregivers in the medical system to learn from the evidence – and change their approach to birth. This plea is especially poignant in the current North American culture of medicalized births – where the environment in which women give birth is one that often promotes fear (and thereby pain) and rarely provides the support or privacy needed to feel safe.
And what about love? From home birth to cesarean birth, love – the labouring woman being seen, respected, and cared for compassionately in word, touch and surroundings – promotes so much more than just birth. Love sets the stage for baby’s first moments in the world; for the mother-baby dyad’s first hour; for the benefits of that warm, safe birthing space to be part of the mother’s circle of security in parenting; and for the best start possible in baby’s journey in life.
Want to read more? Click here to go to the full article I wrote, which was posted on BirthWorks International as a guest post in March 2024.