Increased Levels Of Oxytocin In Mothers And Fathers
Oxytocin is considered the hormone of love and happiness, so it is not surprising that oxytocin levels in mothers increase with the birth of the baby.
In fact, oxytocin is released and secreted to a greater extent by women during childbirth and during lactation, as it has a long-lasting anxiolytic effect and promotes the establishment of an affective and emotional bond between mother and child.
But what about the parents? Do they also show an increase in oxytocin levels when the little one is born? Next, we solve this interesting question.
Changes in moms and dads after the baby is born
With the birth of a child, an intense love of the baby is experienced; It is the feeling of love at first sight. And this has a lot to do with the production of oxytocin, since today it is known that this hormone is closely related to parental, romantic and filial attachment in human beings.
This topic has been a source of study in numerous investigations. But these usually focus on the hormonal, physical and neurological changes that mothers experience, both in pregnancy and postpartum. However, the internal changes that having a child entails for a father have recently begun to be studied.
Thus, the psychologist and neurologist Ruth Feldman, after coordinating an investigation carried out at Yale University (USA) and Bar-Ilan (Israel), affirms that something similar happens in the brains of fathers as in mothers’ after the birth of a child.
Increased levels of oxytocin in mothers and fathers
According to the study carried out by Ruth Feldman, many fathers, after the arrival of the baby, show an increase in the production of oxytocin at the same level as mothers, curiously.
But this is not something that can be observed in all men who have a child, since it only occurs in those parents who are emotionally and deeply involved in the upbringing of children, assuming the responsibility they have as caregivers and educators of children. children. Which is more common today than a few years ago.
Therefore, although mothers are biologically prepared to cope with the demands of the baby and naturally secrete large amounts of this “love hormone”, fathers can also experience this increase, as long as they maintain continuous physical contact and close with the baby.
On the levels of oxytocin and the affective bonds between parents and children
This is essential for establishing strong and healthy attachment bonds between parents and children. Hence the importance of hugging the little ones, kissing them, having skin-to-skin contact, paying attention to them, etc. In short, to show them the unconditional love and affection that, as a parent, one feels for their children.
