Oxytocin is involved in a variety of biological functions, including family and social bonding, the mother-child relationship, lactation and the regulation of stress response. It also plays a crucial role during labor and delivery by stimulating uterine contractions. During childbirth, synthetic oxytocin is widely administered to induce or accelerate labor (around half of all births worldwide; 41% in France) and to reduce bleeding after delivery (administered in the vast majority of births worldwide). At high infusion rates during labor, oxytocin concentration in maternal plasma reaches 2 to 3 times natural physiological levels. Short-, medium- and long-term consequences on oxytocin-dependent biological cascades are poorly elucidated, due to a lack of robust data.
Our aim is to retrospectively and prospectively analyze the consequences of oxytocin administration on large hospital datasets. Our central hypothesis is that oxytocin levels during delivery may influence the duration of breastfeeding, the risk of postnatal depression and the child's socio-emotional and cognitive development.
PI :
Collaborators :
Judith Van der Waerten, INSERM researcher
Philippe DERUELLE, gynecologist CHU Montpellier
The research programs I'm developing concern physiological and behavioral adaptations...More
