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February 26, 2008, 4:34 pm
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As labor progresses, the stream of oxytocin in a mom-to-be's brain and bloodstream becomes a torrent. Among its many other jobs, the hormone causes contractions and gets breast milk flowing. (It works so well that doctors routinely pump pitocin, a synthetic form of oxytocin, through an IV to induce labor.)

As a brand-new mom, you'll be practically swimming in oxytocin when you finally get to hold your baby. The hormone can break through the exhaustion and pain of labor to give you a feeling of euphoria and intense love. According to pediatrician and child development expert Marshall Klaus, the potency of oxytocin helps explain why babies are almost never abandoned in hospitals that allow mothers to hold and nurse them in the first hour after birth.

New fathers aren't immune to the bewitching nature of babies — or the effects of oxytocin — either. Like mothers, dads get a rush of the love hormone when they see their baby for the first time. That may help explain the unexpected emotions that sometimes overwhelm dads in the delivery room.

Steve Bradley says he never gave much thought to fatherhood, even as his wife entered the last stages of pregnancy. He certainly didn't expect to cry when his daughter was born, but the waterworks started as soon as he saw Olivia. "I was pretty much in denial until she started to crown," he says. "She came out face up, looking at me first."

New dads experience other dramatic biological changes, too. A Canadian study in 2001 found that men's testosterone levels tend to plummet (for a couple of months anyway) after they become dads for the first time. Even more intriguing, some men start to produce extra estrogen, perhaps the clearest sign of the transformative power of fatherhood. According to Diane Witt, a neuroscientist with the National Science Foundation, estrogen makes the brain more sensitive to oxytocin, presumably helping fathers become more loving and attentive.

Oxytocin isn't the only love chemical. Dopamine, the main currency of pleasure in the brain, plays an important role in early bonding, too — for you and for your baby. As you hold, rock, or nurse your child, you both get a rush of this "reward" chemical.

While you're savoring the high, dopamine is helping your baby attach emotionally to you. In 2004, Italian researchers put this together by observing baby mice: Those that couldn't sense dopamine didn't especially care whether or not their mom was around. It's the strongest evidence yet that dopamine plays a crucial role in mother and infant bonding.

Adoptive parents also enjoy hits of the feel-good chemicals oxytocin and dopamine when they're around their children, according to Witt. And their offspring, like all children with healthy attachments to their caregivers, get regular rushes of dopamine from spending time with their parents.

Incidentally, dopamine is what gives drug users a feeling of well-being when they're high on heroin or cocaine. In a very real sense, addicts who get hooked on drugs are simply chasing the feeling that ideally flows between parent and child. Parental love just happens to be infinitely healthier.