Posted on 05/13/2010 12:07:25 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
When kids are hurt, stressed or emotionally upset and want their mommy, it is for a valid reason. A new study reveals that talking with one’s mother actually helps lower the level of cortisol, a stress hormone. The soothing effect of the mother’s voice is believed to release oxytocin into the brain. Oxytocin is a feel-good chemical that naturally enhances a person’s mood.
Seth Pollak of the University of Wisconsin-Madison led the study. Pollak and his team asked 61 girls between the ages of 7 and 12 to deliver a speech or complete a set of math problems in front of a group of people with the intention of causing the girls to become stressed. The girls were then split into three groups.
The girls in the first group were given 15 minutes to see and talk to their mothers. The second group talked with their mothers over the telephone for 15 minutes. The third group was asked to watch a neutral, 75 minute movie. The first two groups watched an hour of the same movie after interacting with their mothers.
The team took saliva and urine samples from the girls before and after the test to evaluate oxytocin and cortisol levels. Amazingly, the girls who were given time to interact with their mothers had a dramatic, immediate drop in cortisol and were back to normal after just half an hour. The group that was denied their mother’s attention, saw an increase in cortisol and the level continued to rise after the test was completed.
Obviously they’ve never met my mother. Probably not their mothers, either.
God knows I wish I could! She passed almost a year ago. I called her almost everyday and she could definitly calm me down if something terrible was going on.
I thank god for the day that she walked into that foster home with the social worker and literally saved me.
She was a woman who never in her life gave birth....but she mothered more children than I can count.
Obviously, they didn’t take MY mother into account, lol. Just joking. Sorta.
We have an advertising poster at work that’s ‘selling’ hydrangeas for Mother’s Day. It says, ‘A Great Mom is Worth Every Petal.’
I added a post-it to it one day (this is not where customers can see it) that read, ‘...And a Bad Mom is Worth a Call to Social Services!’ ;)
Not all of us are blessed with good Moms, but we have to do the best we can. :)
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