'Natural births create a closer bond with the baby ', is the headline in the Daily Mail. A natural birth can strengthen the maternal bond, making natural birth mothers 'more emotionally responsive to the cries of babies' than mothers who have had a caesarean, the newspaper says. The effects may be due to a decrease in oxytocin hormone levels, it adds.
The story is based on a study that carried out brain scans on 12 mothers to look at the areas that became active when their baby cried. As this was a very small study, it is highly possible that any differences found are due to chance only. The brain responses occurred when listening to a recording of a baby crying during a nappy change, not to a real-life baby and it is unclear whether the changes seen on the brain scan would have any effect on the mother or baby s experience of bonding.
Caesareans are carried out for a wide range of medical reasons when it is in the best interests for the health of either the mother or the baby. It is unlikely that these mothers will be any less able to bond with their baby or respond to their baby s needs than a mother that has undergone a natural delivery.
Where did the story come from?
Dr James Swain of Yale Child Study Center, Program for Risk, Resilience and Recovery, US and colleagues from institutions in UK, Turkey and Israel, carried out this research. The study was funded by the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love, and Young Investigator Awards from the National Alliance of Research on Schizophrenia and Depression. It was published in the peer-reviewed medical journal: The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.
What kind of scientific study was this?
This was an experimental study in which the researchers aimed to investigate the idea that, in the early post-delivery period, mothers who had undergone a caesarean section would be less responsive to their baby s cry than mothers who had a normal vaginal delivery.
The researchers recruited a group of 12 first-time mothers from Yale New Haven Hospital in the US. Six had undergone natural vaginal delivery, and six had undergone caesarean for 'convenience reasons'. All were breastfeeding mothers and there was no significant difference in age, educational level or social status between the women. There had been no pregnancy complications among any of the women and none had self-reported psychiatric diagnoses or was taking medications. All the women completed a validated questionnaire about their parental concerns and anxieties.
Each mother was given an audio recorder to record their babies cries (during nappy change only) in the first two weeks after birth. The women received MRI brain scans 2 4 weeks after the birth. They wore headphones during the scan and listened to 30-second recordings of their own baby s cry, another baby s cry and a control noise. While listening, the women had to press buttons on a keypad to indicate their emotional response. Their options were none, little, a lot or maximal. The researchers used complex software and statistical methods to compare the areas of activity in the brains of the women during the experiment.
What were the results of the study?
The researchers found that there was no difference in the emotional scores given between the women in response to either their own baby s cry, another baby s cry or control noise between vaginal delivery and caesarean delivery mothers. There was also no difference within each woman in her response to her own baby s cry or another baby s cry. In both groups of mothers, there was a greater emotional response to the baby cries than to a control noise.
