Trust pathways in the brain are set in infancy and passed on from mother to child, according to landmark UNSW-led research. The work relates to oxytocin levels in new mothers and proves for the first time that it is linked to their reported disturbance in bonding with their own mothers.
The paper has been published in the prestigious journal PLOS ONE.
Blood samples taken from women with troubled maternal relationships showed a clear deficit in oxytocin, the trust and bonding hormone, compared with those who reported close childhood ties with their mother. The two groups of women were recruited through Liverpool Hospital.
"The immediate postpartum results show that what you experienced from parenting – these formative experiences – are critical in wiring your response to the hormone," says the first author of the paper, UNSW Professor Valsamma Eapen, who is Chair of Infant, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
"So we see this dysfunctional, or disrupted relating as an intergenerational cycle and just increasing oxytocin levels with a puffer or spray alone won't change that," says UNSW Professor Eapen, who is based at the Ingham Institute and Liverpool Hospital.
[For more of this story, written by Lissa Christopher, go to http://medicalxpress.com/news/...er-baby-bonding.html]
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