Health and Science Story

22 November 2008 19:22 BST

Natural birth mothers more responsive to children

A new study has found that mothers who deliver their children naturally are more responsive to their crying.

The report, published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry today, claims that the natural birth mothers are more responsive in the regions of the brain that are believed to regulate emotions, motivation and habitual behaviours.

Caesarean section delivery (CSD) has risen dramatically in the last few decades, accounting for 29.1 per cent of births in 2006 in the US.

The method is considered necessary under some conditions to protect the health or survival of the child or the mother. However, it has also been controversially linked with postpartum depression.

In today's report scientists argue that compared to CSD, natural childbirth releases a range of important hormones for the child and the mother.

"We wondered which brain areas would be less active in parents who delivered by caesarean section, given that this mode of delivery has been associated with decreased maternal behaviours in animal models, and a trend for increased postpartum depression in humans," lead author Dr James Swain, of Yale University, said.

"Our results support the theory that variations in delivery conditions such as with caesarean section, which alters the neurohormonal experiences of childbirth, might decrease the responsiveness of the human maternal brain in the early postpartum.

"As more women opt to wait until they are older to have children, and by association be more likely to have a caesarean section delivery, these results are important because they could provide better understanding of the basic neurophysiology and psychology of parent-infant attachment," Dr Swain added.

"This work could lead to early detection of families at risk for postpartum depression and attachment problems and form a model for testing interventions."