Fight or flight response in a labouring woman

Many things can “cause” the fight or flight response in a woman’s labour. One of the most common would be moving into unfamiliar surroundings after a successfully progressing labour, such as moving into the hospital environment from your home or associated would be a new staff shift within the hospital. Another thing that could cause this response would be a person whom you are not comfortable with in your birth space or not having support in your choice of birth (home birth etc.) and hunger can also cause you to physically move into this response – in a hospital environment you are connected to a drip and you are not allowed to eat or drink in case of an “emergency” caesarian. And lastly one of the most common causes of the fight or flight response is fear – fear of a caesarian, fear of forcepts, fear of an episiotomy, fear of dying and even the fear that your child will not be born healthy. Your nervous system does not know the difference between real or imagined danger or fear and so will respond in the same way to both.

This response causes labour contractions to slow down or stop and they would not resume until you felt safe or became familiar to the environment you are in. This fear activates the nervous system to produce adrenaline (danger hormone), which gives you the power to prepare to fight or to run away. Your cervix tightens (to prevent your baby from being born where it is not safe) and the increased level of adrenaline neutralises the Oxytocin (the hormone responsible for stimulating your uterus to contract) and endorphins (pain killing hormone), so that the body naturally slows down or even stops the birthing. Experiencing fear during labour leads to your heart rate increasing, your breathing becoming shallow and faster (so reducing the amount of Oxygen in your body and your baby), your heart pumping blood faster around your body so raising your blood pressure and blood being directed away from your Uterus (and your baby) to your limbs, essentially to prepare you for action.

If you go into the birth feeling and being frightened, your system will respond accordingly. This fear will lead to increased adrenaline in your body, which leads to increased tension in your muscles and your cervix with less contraction hormones (Oxytocin) being produced, so that your uterus is having to work much harder to flex and tighten. This subsequently makes contractions far more painful, in the same way that if you tense up when you are in pain, the pain becomes far greater.

No matter how negative the above sounds, some traditional cultures have used this fight or flight effect to help women having difficulty with the delivery by surprising or shouting out at this stage. It makes sense; at this point-of-no-return; for fear or danger to speed up the birth, so that a mother can gather up her newborn baby and run for safety. Though obviously this would not be the best experience for the mother and can cause negative feelings about her child’s birth.