5 Ways Pitocin is different than oxytocin

The numbers of inductions of labor using artificial means likePitocin and other medications has gone up dramatically in the last few years. A hospital in my area says that 90 of the women have their labors induced. Since science shows us that inducing labor can increase the numbers of complications in the labor and with the baby, you might be surprised to note that many of the inductions are not for medical reasons, but rather reasons of convenience, practitioner or mother, known as social induction.

One of the things that women tell me is that they are lead to believe that induction is completely safe and relatively easy, after all, Pitocin is just another form of the body's own oxytocin, right?

While this statement is generally true, artificially created hormones, including Pitocin do not act identically to the hormones in ones body. For example, in pregnancy both the mother and the baby produce oxytocin. The oxytocin produced by each reacts differently in the body because they each have separate jobs.

Here are five things that you may not know about Pitocin and how it can effect your labor:

• Pitocin is released differently. 
  Oxytocin is released into your body in a pulsing action. It comes intermittently to allow your body a break. Pitocin is given in an IV in a continuous manner. This can cause contractions to be longer and stronger than your baby or placenta can handle, depriving your baby of oxygen.
• Pitocin prevents your body from offering endorphins. 
  When you are in labor naturally, your body responds to the contractions and oxytocin with the release of endorphins, a morphine like substance that helps prevent and counteract pain. When you receive Pitocin, your body does not know to release the endorphins, despite the fact that you are in pain.
• Pitocin isn't as effective at dilating the cervix. 
  When the baby releases oxytocin it works really well on the uterine muscle, causing the cervix to dilate. Pitocin works much more slowly and with less effect, meaning it takes more Pitocin to work.
• Pitocin lacks a peak at birth. 
  In natural labor, the body provides a spike in oxytocin at the birth, stimulating the fetal ejection reflex, allowing for a faster and easier birth. Pitocin is regulated by a pump and not able to offer this boost at the end.

• Pitocin can interfere with bonding. 
  When the body releases oxytocin, also known as the love hormone, it promotes bonding with the baby after birth. Pitocin interferes with the internal release of oxytocin, which can disturb the bonding process.

Your body's own natural oxytocin is superior in many ways to Pitocin. There are also ways to increase the release of this natural oxytocin including skin-to-skin contact, lovemaking, breastfeeding, and others.

So, if you are presented with the option of an induction of labor, you might want to ask your provider about whether or not it is being done for a medical reason or if it's something that a bit of time and patience will help alleviate.

_Sources:

_{American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists [ACOG]. (2004). ACOG Practice Bulletin No. 55: Management of postterm pregnancy. Obstetrics and Gynecology, 104(3), 639-646.}

_{Glantz, J. C. (2005). Elective induction vs. spontaneous labor associations and outcomes. Journal of Reproductive Medicine, 50(4), 235-240.}

_{Kramer, M. S., Rouleau, J., Baskett, T. F., & Joseph, K. S. (2006). Amniotic-fluid embolism and medical induction of labor: A retrospective, population-based cohort study. The Lancet, 368(9545), 1444-1448.}

_{Leaphart, W. L., Meyer, M. C., & Capeless, E. L. (1997). Labor induction with a prenatal diagnosis of fetal macrosomia. The Journal of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, 6(2), 99-102.}

_{March of Dimes. (2006). If you’re pregnant: Induction by request. Retrieved May 15, 2007, fromwww.marchofdimes.com/prematurity/21239_20203.asp}

_{Sanchez-Ramos, L., Bernstein, S., & Kaunitz, A. M. (2002). Expectant management versus labor induction for suspected fetal macrosomia: A systematic review. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 100(5), 997-1002.}

_{Vahratian, A., Zhang, J., Troendle, J. F., Sciscione, A. C., & Hoffman, M. K. (2005). Labor progression and risk of cesarean delivery in electively induced nulliparas. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 105(4), 698-704.}

_{Vrouenraets, F. P., Roumen, F. J., Dehing, C. J., van den Akker, E. S., Aarts, M. J., & Scheve, E. J. (2005). Bishop score and risk of cesarean delivery after induction of labor in nulliparous women. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 105(4), 690-697.}

I Don't Like Pitocin

http://birthfaith.org/pitocin/pitocins-untold-impact

Today’s Midwifery Today E-News shared a quote from Michel Odent about synthetic oxytocin and the potentially detrimental impact it can have on a fetus’s oxytocin receptors. Here’s an excerpt:

80% of the blood reaching the fetus via the umbilical vein goes directly to the inferior vena cava via the ductus venosus, bypassing the liver, and therefore immediately reaching the brain: it is all the more direct since the shunts (foramen ovale and ductus arteriosus) are not yet closed. . . . Furthermore, it appears that the permeability of the blood-brain barrier can increase in situations of oxidative stress—a situation that is common when drips of synthetic oxytocin are used during labor. We have, therefore, serious reasons to be concerned if we take into account the widely documented concept of “oxytocin-induced desensitization of the oxytocin receptors.” In other words, it is probable that, at a quasi-global level, we routinely interfere with the development of the oxytocin system of human beings at a critical phase for gene-environment interaction.

Oxytocin is the hormone of love and bonding and human connection. If the oxytocin system is damaged, or a child’s oxytocin receptors become desensitized, the ramifications are huge. A brain and body with an impaired ability to release or detect oxytocin sounds like misery to me. As more and more scientists study oxytocin’s impact, we can see how crucial our body’s oxytocin systems can be for human life, love, and happiness.

Animal research suggests that oxytocin is one of our mind and body’s best defenses against stress, anxiety, and depression:

In a study presented at the 2007 Society for Neuroscience meeting, Grippo, Porges and Carter compared the stress reactions of female prairie voles living for four weeks either in isolation or with a female sibling and found greater levels of stress, behavioral anxiety and depression in those separated from their siblings. The team then gave the animals either oxytocin or saline every day during the last two weeks of the four-week period. The isolated animals treated with oxytocin no longer showed signs of depression, anxiety or cardiac stress. By contrast, oxytocin had no measurable effects on those paired with siblings, suggesting that “the effects of oxytocin are most apparent under stressful conditions,” Carter says. (Tori DeAngelis, “The two faces of oxytocin“)

If Michel Odent is right about prolonged Pitocin exposure desensitizing a fetus’s oxytocin receptors, then it’s possible that these children will grow up with impaired abilities to cope with stress, leading to higher rates of depression and anxiety.

Other research indicates that induction (and cesarean births) may lead to a higher incidence of autism:

A 2004 study out of Australia found that autistic children were twice as likely to have been born without natural labor, either by elective cesarean or induction. (Jennifer Block, Pushed, p. 139)

And that oxytocin administration benefits autistic individuals:

[P]sychiatrist Eric Hollander, MD, of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and colleagues found that adults diagnosed with autism or Asperger’s disorder who received oxytocin injections showed an improved ability to identify emotional content on a speech comprehension task, while those on a placebo did not. (Tori DeAngelis, “The two faces of oxytocin“)

There are implications for drug addiction as well:

In rats, intravenous self-administration of heroin was potently decreased by [oxytocin] treatment. . . . [Oxytocin] receptors in the [central nervous system]–mainly those located in limbic and basal forebrain structures–are responsible for mediating various effects of [oxytocin] in the opiate- and cocaine-addicted organism. (Kovacs GL, Sarnyai Z, Szabo G, Oxytocin and addiction: a review)

Someone close to me was on Prozac several years ago. He told me that, while it reduced his depression, it also reduced his ability to feel any and all emotions. He felt nothing. Empty. From what I understand, his experience is not uncommon. Perhaps it’s because Prozac (fluoxetine) seems to “inhibit the action of oxytocin” (Cantor JM, Binik YM, Pfaus JG, Chronic fluoxetine inhibits sexual behavior in the male rat: reversal with oxytocin). Could that empty emotional void be what it feels like to live as a child whose oxytocin receptors were damaged at birth? I shudder to think so.

And I haven’t even touched yet on the other potential negative effects of Pitocin.  All this from a drug used daily to induce labor for doctor or patient convenience (a use for which it has not been approved by the FDA) and far too often for less-than-concrete “medical” reasons.  Jennifer Block shared these eye-opening statements in Pushed:

A recent ACOG survey found that in 43% of malpractice suits involving neurologically impaired babies, Pitocin was to blame. (p. 137)

Even Williams Obstetrics offers a sobering history: “Oxytocin is a powerful drug, and it has killed or maimed mothers through rupture of the uterus and even more babies through hypoxia from markedly hypertonic uterine contractions.” (p. 138)

The truth is that we really don’t know all the ways synthetic oxytocin might be affecting our children (or ourselves as mothers).  There are certainly situations where Pitocin use is warranted and acceptable, but those cases are far less common than current use would suggest.  Without a doubt our society has a Pitocin abuse problem.  How many women do you know who have been given Pitocin?  How many of them do you think are aware of the potentially detrimental impact of that drug?  It’s sad, isn’t it?