He hormone oxytocin suppresses energy metabolism during pregnancy. reduces the ability of blood to clot during the birth process. increases a woman's appetite during pregnancy. enables the "let-down" reflex to occur when a woman breastfeeds her baby.

"Let-down reflex" occurs in breastfeeding mothers, where oxytocin acts at the mammary glands, causing milk to be “let down” into sinuses (structures from where it can be released via the nipple). Suckling by the baby is the stimulus that causes neurons that make the secretion of pulses of oxytocin from the neurosecretory nerve terminals of the pituitary gland.