CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 315Neuroendocrine regulation and behaviorMaternal and Perinatal Health InterventionsMaternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum

Oxytocin during pregnancy and early postpartum: Individual patterns and maternal-fetal attachment

Levine, Ari, Zagoory-Sharon, Orna, Feldman, Ruth, Weller, Aron·2007·Peptides
DOI 10.1016/j.peptides.2007.04.016
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Oxytocin (OT), a nanopeptide hormone, plays a role in the emergence of maternal behavior, yet few studies examined OT in humans across pregnancy and the postpartum. We followed healthy women at three points: first trimester of pregnancy, third trimester, and first postpartum month. Plasma OT levels showed high individual stability. A third of the sample showed consistent OT levels, whereas others showed increasing or decreasing trends or peak in late pregnancy. The increase in OT from early to late pregnancy correlated with higher maternal-fetal bonding. These data may help set standards for OT levels and underscore links with maternal-infant attachment.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.peptides.2007.04.016

Cites

49 of 49 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Skin-to-skin contact immediately following birth promoted greater oxytocin levels in fathers as well, demonstrating a possible biological mechanism for healthy parent-infant attachment.

    “Skin-to-skin contact immediately following birth promoted greater oxytocin levels in fathers as well (Cong et al., 2015) demonstrating a possible biological mechanism for healthy parent-infant attachment (Levine et al., 2007).”

    From The evolved nest, oxytocin functioning, and prosocial development (2023) · cites this paper as Levine et al. (2007)

  • The high stability in OT levels across a period of several months and the links reported between plasma OT with socioemotional and behavioral indicators of affiliation support the validity of peripheral OT as a biomarker of affiliation processes.

    “The high stability in OT levels across a period of several months and the links reported between plasma OT with socioemotional and behavioral indicators of affiliation (27,28,30,39,67–69) support the validity of peripheral OT as a biomarker of affiliation processes.”

    From Oxytocin and the development of parenting in humans (2010) · cites this paper as [27]

  • A study that followed maternal OT levels from early pregnancy to the postpartum showed that a significant increase from the first to the third trimester was associated with the degree of the mother's emotional bonding to her fetus.

    “A study that followed maternal OT levels from early pregnancy to the postpartum showed that a significant increase from the first to the third trimester was associated with the degree of the mother’s emotional bonding to her fetus (27).”

    From Oxytocin and the development of parenting in humans (2010) · cites this paper as [27]

  • When longitudinal changes in basal OT concentrations have been reported, such changes appear to be relatively small in magnitude.

    “When longitudinal changes in basal OT concentrations have been reported, such changes appear to be relatively small in magnitude (27,42).”

    From Oxytocin and the development of parenting in humans (2010) · cites this paper as [27]

  • Mothers with a rising pattern of plasma OT reported higher maternal fetal attachment in the postpartum (Levine et al., 2007).

    “Mothers with a rising pattern of plasma OT reported higher maternal fetal attachment in the postpartum (Levine et al., 2007)”

    From Approaching the biology of human parental attachment: Brain imaging, oxytocin and coordinated assessments of mothers and fathers (2014) · cites this paper as Levine et al., 2007

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Levine, A., Zagoory-Sharon, O., Feldman, R., & Weller, A.
Affiliations
Bar-Ilan University (IL)
Corresponding author
Weller, Aron
ORCID
Venue
Peptides
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2007-06
Volume
28
Issue
6
Pages
1162-1169
ISSN
0196-9781 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.peptides.2007.04.016
OpenAlex
W2158037437
Semantic Scholar
f07ca1e6d2ac1929b0704f7e13376d98e1956a6d
Cited by
315
References
49
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 26 · 2018: 24 · 2017: 26 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 20 · 2014: 27 · 2013: 22 · 2012: 21
FWCI
16.93
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations
  • Peptides (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Obstetrics and Gynecology › Maternal and Perinatal Health Interventions
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
Keywords
oxytocin, pregnancy, postpartum period, maternal-fetal attachment, maternal-infant attachment, plasma oxytocin, interindividual variability, maternal behavior
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adult, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Maternal Behavior, Oxytocin, Pregnancy, Pregnancy Trimester, First, Pregnancy Trimester, Third, Radioimmunoassay, Maternal-Fetal Relations, Postpartum Period

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review