Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Love IS a drug

I love (ha!) this story on BabyCenter.com. According to this article, when you hold, nurse or rock your baby both you and the baby get a rush of dopamine. "Incidentally, dopamine is the same compound that 'rewards' users of heroin or cocaine. In a very real sense, addicts who get hooked on drugs are simply chasing the feeling that flows between a mother and her baby."

I guess it explains the sensation I've had of just swimming in love when I'm holding Emma. I gush to my childless friends that I just didn't know--I couldn't have known what it would be like to have a baby. I recently had a coworker remark that I've embraced motherhood in a way that was inconceivable when I was a tough, single 30-something career woman in NYC Mmm, was I that much a stereotype? Am I now? Who cares! I'm drowning in love hormones and I like it!

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