A new study has found that mothers who deliver vaginally, rather than through caesarean section delivery (CSD), are significantly more responsive to the cry of their own baby.

CSD is considered necessary under some conditions to protect the health or survival of infant or mother, but it has been linked with postpartum depression. In the U.S., the occurrence of CSD has increased steeply from 4.5 percent of all deliveries in 1965 to a recent high in 2006 of more than 29 percent.

The experience of childbirth by VD compared with CSD uniquely involves the pulsatile release of oxytocin from the posterior pituitary, uterine contractions and vagino-cervical stimulation. Oxytocin is a key mediator of maternal behavior in animals.