Dr. Sarah Buckley is trained as a GP/family physician with qualifications in GP-obstetrics. She has been writing and lecturing to childbirth professionals and parents since 1997 and is the author of the best-selling book Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering. Sarah has a special interest in the hormones of physiological labour and birth and the impacts of interventions. In 2015 she completed an extensive report on this topic, Hormonal Physiology of Childbearing, published with Childbirth Connection (US). She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Queensland, researching oxytocin in labour and birth. She has co-authored several papers on oxytocin in labour, birth and breastfeeding. Sarah is also the mother of four children, all born at home and now in their teenage years and beyond. She lives on the semi-rural outskirts of Brisbane. For more, see www.sarahbuckley.com
Contemporary childbearing has benefited from many medical advances, and from highly skilled and committed maternity care providers. However, current high rates of maternity care interventions may be disadvantageous for the healthy majority. This presentation summarises the healthy functioning of hormonal physiology in relation to four important hormonal systems, and the benefits of physiologic childbearing for mother and baby. It also explores the possible impacts of common maternity care practices on this hormonal physiology, including induction of labor, epidural analgesia and caesarean section, and suggest midwifery approaches that may optimise hormonal physiology when intervention are needed. Dr Buckley also considers the hormonal physiology of childbearing in relation to other models including epigenetic perspectives and the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) model. This presentation is based on Dr Buckley’s ground-breaking 2015 report Hormonal Physiology of Childbearing.
The physiological onset of labour is a moment of enormous biological investment. Fetal readiness for the stresses of labour, and for the critical transition to life outside the womb, must be matched with maternal readiness for an effective, efficient labour and birth. In addition, pre-labour physiological preparations promote success for mother and newborn with breast-feeding and attachment, adding essential components to individual and species survival. Induction of labour, by definition, curtails full readiness for mother and baby. How might this impact hormonal physiology for mother and baby? Could there be longer-term effects? Join Dr Sarah Buckley, author of Hormonal Physiology of Childbearing, in this thought-provoking presentation.
Oxytocin is a major hormone of labour and birth. As well as facilitating the rhythmic contractions of labour in all mammals, oxytocin also acts within the maternal brain at this time, with calming, connecting and pain-relieving effects. Oxytocin activates maternal behaviour in all mammals including by activating brain reward and pleasure centres through the oxytocin peaks of labour and birth. The oxytocin system in labour and birth can be disrupted by obstetric interventions. This presentation draws from current knowledge, human and animal research, and biological understandings to discuss possible positive and negative impacts of synthetic oxytocin, epidurals, and caesareans on maternal and fetal oxytocin systems. Strategies to fill possible ‘hormonal gaps’ are also discussed.
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