Re: Pitocin Re: Respen-A

[Guest guest]

This entire thread about pitocin has me even more depressed about this entire

journey. Add another mark against my guy. No wonder he's got issues,

thankfully he's mild on the spectrum.

Funny story. He had to rate himself in school. He did really well on his pie

chart. Rated himself high in word smart, music smart, nature smart. Rated

himself low in body smart, interpersonal. And he rated himself low in people

smart. I told him he did a good job, I'd agree with all his rating except for

picture smart, because he's a very visual person. He said he rated himself so

low in people smart because there are so many people in the world he doesn't

know them. It was a good laugh. He still has a difficult time in some social

areas, a little too black and white yet but he's doing good.

Thanks

Tammy

[ ] Pitocin Re: Respen-A

I thought this might be interesting for some of you - and , it may lead

you to a discovery or two as well for GI function.

The Relationship between Artificial Oxytocin (Pitocin) Use at Birth for Labor

Induction or Augmentation and the Psychosocial Functioning of Three-year-olds

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

L. Winstone, Ph.D.

The focus of my dissertation research study was, as you can see by the above

title, an exploration of whether there is any relationship between the use of

Pitocin (artificial oxytocin) to start or speed up labor, and the way children

born with its use function individually and in their relationships when they are

three years old. I was interested in Pitocin use because what I read suggested

that around two-thirds of inductions are now for non-medical reasons, but there

wasn't a lot of research to tell us whether there were any specific consequences

to the child of this use.

Before starting this research I first interviewed six therapists who work with

babies, children, and adults to resolve issues arising from challenging prenatal

or birth experiences. All the therapists had worked with clients who had been

born with the use of Pitocin. The therapists told me what they had observed and

learned about their clients and the role they thought Pitocin played in their

functioning. I performed a content analysis on the interview transcripts, and

about two years later, had a long list of " items " that eventually became the raw

material for a survey to be conducted with mothers of three-year-old children. I

sent this list to the six therapists with a voting form, and they helped me

select which items best represented the various areas of functioning about which

I planned to ask the mothers.

Eventually, this list became the survey that participants were invited to

complete. Ultimately, I had 498 completed surveys that could be analyzed to see

if Pitocin use appeared to be related to a difference in how three-year-olds

functioned. The following is a summary of the findings that were statistically

significant.

1. Receiving Pitocin resulted in more negative recollections of labor and

delivery, suggesting that mothers who received it had a more challenging

experience than those who didn't. However, there was a similar finding for the

use of epidural anesthesia and for pain medication, both of which tend either to

precede or follow the use of Pitocin.

2. Mothers who received Pitocin spent less time with their babies in the first

hour after delivery, and were less likely to feed their babies exclusively at

the breast in the first six months. In other words, babies who were born without

Pitocin were more likely to be fed exclusively at the breast in the first six

months than those born with Pitocin

3. Two factors distinguished children born with Pitocin from those born

without Pitocin.

The first was called " Assertiveness " , which describes a socially appropriate

way that babies and children communicate their need for help and comfort when

they are feeling uncomfortable or unsafe. Typically, crying, using facial

expressions and physical gestures, and later, verbalizing their thoughts and

feelings, elicits helpful responses from parents, who try to identify and meet

the need the baby or child is expressing. However, babies born with Pitocin,

whose mothers reported having had a more challenging time during labor and

delivery, appear to have a higher need to be assertive because they seem to

experience more discomfort, but are apparently less effective in asserting their

needs and getting them met when they feel unsafe or uncomfortable.

The second factor was called " Need to Control Environment " and this summarizes

what seems to be a higher level of discomfort or insecurity, particularly in

response to " outside-in " influences (e.g., reacting to food with digestive

problems or being picky eaters; problems coping with other people's timing and

structure, refusing help from others) and increased or exaggerated efforts to

control their environment, resulting in behaviors that may be more challenging

to their mothers/family. There appears to be some continuity of effects between

infancy and age three: for example, children who were described as picky eaters,

or as having digestive problems at three, were likely to have been colicky,

fussy babies. Interestingly, the hormone oxytocin is very involved in the

digestive process: it plays a role in the production of digestive enzymes and as

we enjoy our meal, in a positive feedback loop, we produce more oxytocin.

It may be that a process described as " hormonal imprinting " , identified in a

considerable number of animal studies since the 1970s, is the mechanism that

accounts for these differences between children exposed to Pitocin and those who

were not. Using Pitocin to initiate labor may " flood " the available oxytocin

receptors in mother and baby, apparently affecting children's internal comfort

levels and how they interact with others, although how this takes place in the

babies has not yet been studied. Since both mother and baby receive Pitocin

during labor and delivery, it is as yet unclear to what degree each contributes

to challenges in their mutual relationship.

Santa Barbara Graduate Institute

July 2008

Regards,

Summer McFarland

1.22 HEAL KIDS

1.224.325.5437

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