Oxytocin, Touch of Love after Lack of Connection. Alize ...

AlizeTimmerman:OxytocinafterLackofConnection

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Oxytocin, Touch of Love after Lack of Connection. Alize Timmerman, The Netherlands Summary

One of the mayor remedies to treat neonates with connection, stress or eating problems is Oxytocin. Oxytocin is a relatively new homeopathic remedy, just recently proved. In this article the Materia Medica of Oxytocin is reviewed and supplemented. A differentiation is given with four remedies also offering solutions for stress and connection problems in neonates. These remedies are Placenta, Opium, Lac humanum and Nux vomica.

Introduction

Oxytocin is a remedy of human origin connected with birth and early development. Together with remedies such as Amniotic Fluid [1, 2], Placenta, Umbilical Cord [3] and Lac humanum [2, 3, 4, 5, 6] it can assist the homeopath when addressing irregularities immediately following the birth process.

Oxytocin is a hormone primarily made in the Pituitary Gland and the Hypothalamus, but also in other parts of the nervous system connected to the hormonal / reproductive system. It is the “love and care” hormone, as it evokes wellbeing in people when hugged or caressed, during love making, etc. It also is one of the important hormones facilitating the birth process and the start of the milk gift in the mother. An accessible book on Oxytocin is the Oxytocin Factor by Kerstin Uvnäs Moberg [7].

The Hahnemann Institute of the Netherlands started provings and triturations on sarcodes related to (early) human development since the nineties of the last century. As a result of the triturations on Oxytocin supervised by myself, one article on Oxytocin has been published by Angela Hair [8]. The Trituration Principle means potentizing and proving of a substance at the same time by a group of provers. The trituration principle is described thoroughly in the Trituration Handbook by Hogeland and Schriebmann [9]. It is of importance to realize that homeopathic prescriptions should be based not on an isopathic approximation, meaning using a potentized substance without significant proving of the substance, but based on a valid proving of the substance.

In the present article I will elaborate on the role of Oxytocin as a major remedy for treating disorders in the newborn child. I will discuss situations where artificially the level of Oxytocin in the child is reduced, i. e. when the child is born with a Caesarian section or when for whatever reason, before the birth Oxytocin (e.g. in the form of Syntocinon) is administered to the mother (and thus to the child). In the latter case the natural Oxytocin production in the child is reduced due to the feedback mechanisms involved; when


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Oxytocin is administered as a medicine, the overdoses in the bloodstream blocks the natural production for some time. A second focal point constitutes the situation where the connection between mother and child is disturbed due to other causes, especially shock or trauma during labor or birth. These situations I will elucidate with short examples, also taking into account the use of remedies closely related to Oxytocin in the way they work.

If you want to see how Oxytocin works, view the short film on internet showing the impact of caressing on a premature born baby who was declared death but was vitalized completely by the caressing of its parents [10]. Oxytocin not only stimulates and facilitates the birth process, but when released in the bloodstream it reduces the effects of trauma, stress, fight and flight reactions and it stimulates calmness, tranquility and a feeling of connection.

Oxytocin as a homeopathic remedy

Next to Lac humanum and Placenta, Oxytocin is one of the most important remedies to consider when confronted with breaches in the connection between mother and child. During pregnancy mother and child are “one”, the child is totally dependent on the mother for food and protection. No one else can take over the role of the mother in this phase of life. At birth, the oneness is separated into two, the child becomes detached from the mother.

Figure 1. Mother and Child detachment

Oxytocin stimulates the dilatation of the cervix and the uterus; and, after birth when the nipples are stimulated, Oxytocin enables the milk flow to start. When the child is born with a Caesarian, the natural role of Oxytocin is suppressed. To be born in a natural way evokes also the production of Oxytocin in the baby. When born via a Caesarian, the troubled regulation of Oxytocin production in the child, in general combined with another kind of contact –less intense- between mother and child immediately after birth, may result eventually in a lack of contact or in a derailed contact between mother and

MOTHER AND CHILD

CHILD

MOTHER


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newborn. Birth via a Caesarian also has an effect on the intestine flora of the baby. The natural infection with motherly bacteria and the transferred immunity from the mother are not induced, which may result in serious digestive problems in the newborn.

Similar situations may occur when the natural production of Oxytocin is suppressed by a large dose of the hormone given to the mother in order to stimulate the labor. All hormone production in human beings is controlled by a feedback system, the level of the hormone in blood or tissue either stimulates or slows down the production of new hormone molecules. The overdoses given during labor blocks the natural production, thus eventually hampering the contact between mother and child. Examples of the negative influence a lack of Oxytocin causes in the development of newborn children are listed by Uvnäs Moberg [7].

Oxytocin is nearly absent in the Millennium Repertory of van Zantvoort [11]. The only notifications mentioned are:

• Uses: To induce labor, uterine contraction and medical abortion. • CVS: Hypotension accompanied with flushing and reflex tachycardia; arrhythmia • Female: uterine spasm; uterine overstimulation; hypertonicity; tetanic

contractions; soft tissue damage or rupture of the uterus. • G.I: Nausea; vomiting

The concise trituration results of the trituration groups in, New Zealand and The Netherlands are listed in Table 1. This table gives only mayor symptoms for Oxytocin, listed according to the trituration levels physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and vital sensations.

A colleague, Annette Hegg, working at a fertility clinic in Oslo, reports to me that that she uses Oxytocin in cases of new born babies, especially after a Ceasarian, when the child doesn’t drink well (especially children who cannot “find” the breast to suck) or when the child is extremely restless and sleepless. She gives the remedy also to mothers who, after a Ceasarian, cannot rest, are sleepless and cannot connect with their child.

Next to the treatment of neonates, I have used Oxytocin (C30/4 and C220/4) to initiate labor pains when other remedies such as Pulsatilla and Nux vomica did not give any results.


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Table 1. Oxytocin, major themes: trituration results

I also used Oxytocin in cases where people are disappointed in their love-life. In cases where no connection with other people could be established. Often these people are very sensitive to colors and sounds. People who do not want to be touched, who cannot connect to others.


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Other uses of Oxytocin are reported to me by Wiet van Helmond of the Hahnemann Institute of the Netherlands, who used the remedy successfully in cases of dementia, and by Leen van der Kaay, who used it to treat young people with lack of confidence and serious anxiety attacks.

Other remedies to consider in neonates cases

Remedies closely related to Oxytocin when treating neonates are Lac humanum, Placenta but also Opium and Nux vomica. More on a distance we find remedies as Aconitum, Chamomilla, Thuja , Chocolate, Bellis perennis (plant remedies), Sepia, Lachesis, Tarentula and Bufo (animal remedies), some elements such as Sulphur, Arsenicum, Zincum, Plumbum, Mercurius, Ferrum, Aurum, Platinum, Ozone and some salts like Barita carbonicum and Natrium muriatricum. The remedies from the periodic table mentioned above have in common a lack of connection between child and mother.

In my own practice I have found that the remedies Oxytocin, Placenta, Lac humanum , Opium and Nux vomica constitute a cluster of remedies with symptoms closely resembling each other. In common they have symptoms related to the reaction of the neonate on allopathic medicine during labor and birth.

Other common symptoms are:

• over-activity of the brain or on the other hand a lack of reaction, • nervous, • restlessness, • sleeplessness, • breathing problems, • eating problems • cramps in the abdomen and stool problems

The following short cases can be of use to illustrate the differentiation between Oxytocin vis à vis Placenta, Opium, Nux vomica and Lac humanum. In the summarizing figures 2 to 5, the symptoms each of the remedies Placenta, Lac humanum , Opium and Nux vomica have in common with Oxytocin are listed in the upper text blocks, while on the left hand side the main symptoms differentiating the remedy from Oxytocin are listed. N.B. the symptoms of the remedies Placenta, Opium, Nux vomica and Lac humanum are only a selection of the Materia medica relevant in neonate cases!. On the right hand side the Oxytocin symptoms are listed in the way they also appear in Table 1 at the physical, mental and emotional level. Thus one can see in one glance how for instance Oxytocin differs from Opium etc.


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Cases of a mother (age 34) and her first born son (age 3 months at the first consultation). Remedy for the mother: Placenta, for the son: Oxytocin.

History

During the second part of the pregnancy the mother had to rest, the child stopped growing at about seven months. Although the mother preferred a natural birth, the birth was induced at eight and a half month. Before birth an epidural anesthesia was given to the mother, and also a high dose of oxytocin. As a result, the mother didn’t feel connected to her own body and to the child during labor. In her opinion the child was healthy, but the people at the hospital told her otherwise, the boy hadn’t grown as he should have. After birth the boy developed white saliva, thrush. During breast feeding the nipples are painful and red. The mother has to feed him very often. At each feeding he drinks just a little milk.

Both parents of the boy are rather small and slight. The mother, when born herself, had similar growth problems as her son, her placenta didn’t grew anymore. Probably as a result of all problems during her own infancy, she developed many food allergies. Especially the milk allergy is very strong.

Case of the boy

The boy came at the practice at the age of 3 months.

Complaints: cramps in his abdomen, < during stress of the mother. He has green and slimy diarrhea. He has an inflammation in his eye. He has colds often: his nose is full of mucus. He does not sleep well, too often sleepless. He wakes up after a short period of sleep. Always awake at 5 a.m. He wakes up with cramps. He has dry cheeks, he drinks too little. After each vaccination (diphtheria, whooping-cough, tetanus, polio) his behavior aggravates.

At the intake consultation he sits on the lap of his mother and cries. He is always looking and searching for his mother. It seems like he doesn’t realize he is already sitting on his mother’s lap. He does not want to cuddle up and be consoled. He beats his mother, and throws things on the floor. When he plays on the floor all goes fine. Whenever he bumps, he does not cry or show any pain. Only when he sits on his mother’s lap it is terrible. He cries out loudly when the parents do not do immediately what he wants. He tries to bite the nipple of his mother. When they do not react fast enough it angers him even more.

When his nappy is changed, he often either makes himself very small, rolls into a ball, or overstretch making a bridge of his back. It seems like, although rather small, he has strong legs and arms. His whole body seems full of tension.


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When he gets restless, the mother gets overstressed and irritable. A vicious circle develops, the child irritate the mother, the mother gets overstressed, the child is sensitive to the mothers mood and his behavior becomes even worse and he doesn’t eat and grow anymore. And thus the mother feels she fails in her motherhood even more.

Key Symptoms:

• Restless • Unfeeling: beating hard, not crying. • Disconnection to mother • Muscles, tense, hard. • Easy infections. • Diarrhea: cramps, <tension mother. • Aversion: touch • Aversion food and drinks. Thin • Sleepless. Waking up early morning (5 a.m.) • Coryza • Dryness of skin. • Ailments due to overuse of Syntoxinon during labor.

Remedy: Oxytocin C40/4 (C40 triturated to the 4C level)

Feed-back on the effect of the remedy. The mother was really surprised with the results and sent a text message. “He likes to get a massage. He wants the three of us together. He starts laughing at us. Eats and drinks, no cramps anymore. When he wakes up early, a spoon of the remedy diluted in water helps him to fall in sleep again”

A second text message two weeks later: “no thrush anymore, no cramps anymore. He is less touchy, irritable and impatient. He likes to be touched”.

The 1st follow-up was about 3 months later. The situation was more or less the same as in the text messages cited above. No remedy was given.

After about one year the 2nd follow up. There was a relapse in the symptoms. Sleeplessness, knocking and kicking again, “sexual arousals”: he touched his penis whenever possible, in general the boy was very stressed.

Remedy: Oxytocin C40/4 repeated.

Feed/back from the parents after some weeks: More relaxed, less irritable, wanted to touch his mother, was not pre-occupied with his penis. Sleeps well.


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Case of the mother, age 36 at her first consultation

The mother came for herself in the practice some two years after the first consultation of the boy. At this time she is pregnant of her second child. She doesn’t want to make the same “mistakes” she felt she has made during her first pregnancy. In the second pregnancy, the child and placenta grew normally till the 8th month. The growth stopped at that time. She refused allopathic medication and came to me in the practice. The remedy given was Placenta female C220/5. It worked wonderfully, she had normal labor pains and also the birth of her little girl went quite well. After birth she phoned and reported that the labor, the birth and the start of the breast feeding went well.. She fully maintained the contact with her own body and with her little girl.

Placenta was also indicated because of some of the history she revealed at the consultation at the 8th month of the pregnancy. She then explained, that memories of her childhood came back to her. Her mother has told her she was an unexpected child and that during and after the pregnancy she (her mother, the grandmother of the boy) didn’t know how to act as a pregnant woman and later as a mother. She doesn’t know much about raising children and showed no feelings toward her daughter. As a result the daughter, the woman in consultation, felt empty, neglected and misunderstood as a child. Thus she feels disconnected with her mother, she feels she can never fulfill the expectations of her mother. And, as a result, these feelings of failure and guilt also creep into her other relationships, either at home or situations at her work. She says that because of all this, she feels like being an “interrupting factor” in other people’s lives.

In the trituration of Placenta (not yet published) at the Hahnemann Institute of the Netherlands, we found the following key symptoms for Placenta:

• Memories of childhood coming back • Grief during pregnancy • Lack of growth of placenta and baby during pregnancy • Disconnection from the mother • Feelings of isolation and emptiness • Feeling like being an “interrupted factor” • Lack of focus, chaos • Wanting to escape the present situation • Physical: (feeling of) swollen right leg (maybe caused in this case by the high

dose of Oxytocin two years earlier)

The differentiation between Oxytocin and Placenta is illustrated in Figure 2.


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Figure 2. Differentiation between Oxytocin and Placenta in treatment of neonates

Differentiation with Oxytocin: A case of Opium, a young girl 3 weeks old.

Mother and child visit the practice on their way to the hospital. The mother really fears her child may die. Acute symptoms are a lack of reaction from the baby. Occasionally she stops breathing, she then grasps for air. She doesn’t drink her milk from the bottle, she cannot swallow properly and she chokes all the time. Her eyes are drooping she cannot keeps them open. In general her whole body feels weak, her muscles are weak. No stool for many days now. When she coughs, her face turn deeply red. She doesn’t react to touching and to her environment anymore. She doesn’t cry.

The mother wants, next to the opinion and treatment of the hospital doctors, the opinion and treatment of a homeopath. As result of the case analysis, I decided not to give


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Oxytocin, but Opium. Opium resembles Oxytocin quite a bit, in the differentiation (Figure 2) we see that there are more than a few overlapping symptoms, but the lack of reaction, the weak muscles, the obstructed breathing and cramps without stool clearly indicate Opium and not Oxytocin.

Remedy: Opium C30. Three doses, 2 hours intermittent. No reaction. In the evening there was a follow-up, resulting in the prescription of Opium C200. This had immediately a positive effect. The baby started drinking, no drooping eyes anymore, normal respiration, recovery of bodily strength.

Feedback from the mother: In the hospital the baby was forced fed for some days and recovered completely after the Opium C 200 within a couple of days.

The differentiation between Opium and Oxytocin is illustrated in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Differentiation between Oxytocin and Opium in treatment of neonates


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Differentiation with Oxytocin: A case of Nux vomica, a young girl, 2 months old.

The child came to the practice with complaints centered around sleeplessness and anger. The girl is very alert and awake. Although she is still very young, she acts always contradictory, in opposition. She is often angry, cries and want things to go her way. She eats normally, but as in Oxytocin she has an inclination towards constipation

At birth she was past her due time, and the labor was induced by a large dose of Syntoxinon. At birth she was stuck in the birth canal, it took time before she was completely out.

Nux vomica was indicated by her alertness and the fact that she could not sleep. Even the smallest sound prevented her to fall asleep.

The differentiation between Nux vomica and Oxytocin is illustrated in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Differentiation between Oxytocin and Nux vomica in treatment of neonates


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Differentiation with Oxytocin: A case of Lac humanum, a young girl, 2 weeks old.

The girl coming for the 1st consultation is a small baby, 2 weeks old. The main complaints are eczema and a stuffed up nose. The girl has had breast feeding for just a couple of days, then the breast feeding changed into bottle feeding because the milk gift in the mother ceased. The eczema started immediately after this change. The baby also throws up the milk, more than usual in babies.

The girl is restless when she is not in physical contact with her mother. Even when her father tries to sooth her, she cries and want to go back to her mother. She is only relatively calm when her mother touches her, she likes to feel her mother literally on her skin. The contact needs to be so close.

In the family history of her mother eczema and allergies –especially milk- are quite common.

I decided for Lac humanum C30 based on the eczema (< milk; < changes in food), the allergy for milk associated with the mother, nausea and vomiting, the need to literally feel her mother and weeping when the mother leaves. Lac humanum is the remedy when we face a derailed immune system, resulting in a protection for the child for future allergies and infections.

The 1st follow-up was after six weeks, the eczema had disappeared and also the influenza was better. The complaints never returned with this child.

The differentiation between Oxytocin and Lac humanum is summarized in Figure 5.


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Figure 5. Differentiation between Oxytocin and Lac humanum in treatment of neonates

Analysis and conclusion

In all human beings there is a balance between stress and relaxation, between fight and flight, between connection and isolation. Oxytocin as a hormone helps to tip the balance toward calmness, relaxation, connection. Oxytocin also is important as an agent in enjoying and relishing (sexual) contacts, food and a healthy life.

In young children and their mothers It helps to develop maternal behavior, it induces the milk gift of the mother and in general gives a feeling of togetherness and comfort, diminishing the pains of isolation and discomfort. Touching, to touch and to be touched is essential for each human being. Touching releases Oxytocin in the body. So the sooner a baby is exposed to a loving and caring environment, including caressing and


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massage, the more a baby will feel secure and the better a baby will appreciate food and will grow.

Oxytocin also smooths bodily functions like heart rhythm aberrations, headaches, abdominal cramps.

As a homeopathic remedy, Oxytocin can positively influence a balance lost, a baby derailed. In all cases where the ideal situation described above is not present, Oxytocin may help restore the normal equilibrium in a child en eventually in the mother. In cases of perceived separation, a loss of closeness and touch, a loss of calmness and relaxation, Oxytocin is one of the remedies the homeopath should immediately consider.

But, as shown in the examples, one should not focus only on Oxytocin. We must always keep in mind the fact that no two cases are completely similar, that each case is unique and therefor other remedies may be the right simillimum. Certain other remedies are discussed in this article, especially Opium, Lac humanum, Placenta and Nux vomica. These remedies each have symptoms in common with Oxytocin, hence I have presented for each of these four remedies a diagram which shows immediately the differentiation between Oxytocin and the other remedy.

Vita Alize Timmerman

Alize studied Naturopathic Medicine and Homoeopathy and started practicing in 1982 and lecturing in 1986. She is the founder (1988) and director of The Hahnemann Institute of The Netherlands. The Institute organizes practical training for students at the end of their study and in-service training for practising homoeopaths. Also some 25 provings are executed by participants in seminars of the Institute. Alize works in the Institute with a group of colleagues. Alize lectures now all over the world, combining her unique insights in Homoeopathy and Psychology with a very special talent in didactics and in presentation.


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References

1. Timmerman A., 2012. Amniotic Fluid, Water for the Fruit. Homeopathic Links Vol. 25/2, 102-105

2. Timmerman A., 2012. Nurture and Connection. Amniotic Fluid and Lac humanum. The Homeopath, Vol.30:4: 7-8

3. Timmerman A. & W.Jager, 2012. Umbilical Cord. Article submitted to Links. 4. Timmerman A., 2012. Despair and Disease. Disorders in the Bond between

Parent and Child. The Homeopath Vol. 31:2 in press 5. Timmerman A. 2011. Lac lupinum. The Connection to Ancient Roots and

Instincts, The Homeopath 2011; 30/2 6. Timmerman, A., 2002. Lac humanum, To be fed or to feed. Homeopathic Links:

Materia Medica of Milk. 7. Uvnäs Moberg K., 2003. The Oxytocin Factor, Tapping the hormone of Calm,

Love and Healing. Da Capo Press, USA 8. Hair A., 2011. For the love of Oxytocin. Journal Australian Homoeopathic

Association Vol. 23/1, 40-42 9. Hogeland A. & Schriebmann J., 2009. The Trituration Handbook. Homeopathy

West. USA. 10. Online: Website Today: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/38988444/ns/today-

parenting/ 11. Van Zantvoort R., 2007. The Complete Millenium Repertory, 5.1 In: Reference

Works Homeopathic Computer Program, KHA

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