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Orgasmic Childbirth?
Filed under: Opinions
Here's something you don't hear very often during childbirth: "Oooh, that feels so good!" Generally that is because the mother-to-be-is either unconscious, writhing in pain, or numb from the waist down. But according to a new documentary, childbirth and sexual pleasure are not mutually exclusive.Last year, actress Ricki Lake started a conversation about birth practices in the U.S. with the release of her documentary The Business of Being Born. She urged us to to rethink the way we view childbirth and experience it for what it really is -- a natural life process and not a medical emergency.
Now, a new documentary by filmmaker Debra Pascali-Bonaro takes that idea a giant step further by claiming that childbirth can not only be a natural experience, but an orgasmic one as well. The film, Orgasmic Birth, was shot over a five-year period and follows eleven women as they experience what midwife Naoli Vinaver describes as "the sensual and sexual nature of birth." Yes, these women are having orgasms while in labor.
According to Dr. Christiane Northrup, experiencing ecstasy during childbirth is perfectly natural. "All of the pathways that are involved in sexual pleasure are in fact stimulated by birthing a baby. And when you can allow yourself to open in the same way that you open to orgasms, the exact same experience is possible," she says in the film.
Of course, a hospital setting is not conducive to orgasmic birth. "When we first put birth into the hospital decades ago, we treated it like it was surgery," says Dr. Marsden Wagner, former Director of Women's & Children's Health for World Health Organization. "It's got to be like it is when you make love with someone. It's got to be safe, and secure, and uninterrupted. And that is how you will have an orgasmic birth."
Watching this clip from the documentary initially made me a little uncomfortable -- like I was witnessing something private and personal and should turn away. But after several views, I got past the fact that these women were experiencing orgasms and could appreciate what they didn't seem to be experiencing: Pain.
Orgasms are generally something we don't discuss with anyone other than our partners and maybe our closest girlfriends. But, let's try it anyway. Did you experience anything close to orgasmic pleasure when you gave birth?
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
3-25-2009 @ 3:14PM
Michele W said...I wish! I am sorry but I am one who can say that the pain was the only thing I could feel besides worry for my life and my childs life. I had a nightmare birth. Nothing went right, the epidural that i did not want turned out to hurt more then the actual birth of my child. I had some lady that never did an epidural before and it felt like she was tearing my back apart. I cried harder during that then i did giving birth. The lady messed my back up and after that I had all back labor that felt like someome was stabbing me in the back with a hot knife. Then my son was facing up and me only being 5 ft and my son was 8# 4oz he got stuck and the doctor did not believe me and well i will spare you the rest but all i have to say is that 6 months later i had to have surgery down there to try and fix it and i have sever nerve damage there for the rest of my life. My child being healthy and the fact that he made it is all that matters but an orgasm was the furthest thing from my mind.
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3-25-2009 @ 9:44PM
ame s said...I'm wondering if you had the same "hit the nerve", agonizing feeling in the muscle/tendon where your groin meets thigh as I had with my epidurals. That pain was worse than my worse contraction as close to the pain I felt during the c-section incision. I had to beg both doctors to stop and retry both times I had epidurals. I still feel that "twinge" (mild term, but you know what I mean) in that muscle/tendon spot, and my youngest child is 9.
3-25-2009 @ 3:33PM
Felicia said...I can believe this. I gave birth almost 8 months ago and I didn't feel any pain. I did not take an epidural. I did take stadol (I believe that's what it's called) but I was still able to feel the contractions. The contractions felt like pressure but know pain was involved, even in the crowing. I felt nothing. Reading this makes me wonder if I cold have experience an orgasm if I wasn't in the hospital.
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3-25-2009 @ 9:45PM
ame s said...Ah, stadol, the nectar of the gods! I had stadol (not sure of the spelling, either) with the birth of my first. I know what you mean by feeling the contractions but there was almost a feeling of disconnect. Wow, that hurts, but when this contraction is over I can take another little snooze. Snooze I did for 16 hours. I had to have an epidural before the emergency c-section with baby the first,then the stupid epidural failed as surgery began. They had disconnected the stadol.
With daughter the 2nd, when I asked for Staydol (I like that spelling better) the nurse in charge said I didn't want "that druggy stuff." Yes, I did. By the time the doc came in I was in such agony I welcomed the epidural. She had to do it twice.
I doubt I could orgasm in the hospital even if I wasn't pregnant and just having a trist with John Stamos in his "ER" garb ;)
3-25-2009 @ 6:47PM
Danielle Cavallucci said...Experiencing pregnancy and childbirth as the ultimate expression of sexual union, as a sensual and fully manifested version of your highest sexual expression, is something too many women in this country have been deprived of due to the profiteering of the medical industry and pandemic paranoia surrounding one of the most natural things you will ever do. Cheers to Rikki Lake for her compelling and necessary documentary, cheers to the women fighting to restore some dignity, beauty and reverence to an experience which ought to be so very different for women than it usually is in this country!!
Danielle Cavallucci
author, Your Orgasmic Pregnancy: Little Sex Secrets Every Hot Mama Should Know (Hunter House 2008)
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3-30-2009 @ 4:23PM
Pavlina said...hmmm, I went natural both times. I would say it is more orgasmic like when you have a really itchy spot and you scratch it. It feels so good to scratch that itchy bit. That was how that final push was. Ahh, felt so nice to finally get that big head out of there. Ah. :)
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4-14-2009 @ 2:01PM
Gen said...I've had two natural hospital births and my births were wonderful. I often wonder if I had an orgasmic birth because after my first birth, my clitoris was so sensitive. (I noticed it when the nurse wiped that area). I even said out loud, "Oh, my clitoris is so sensitive! It felt like I'd just had an orgasm." I remember being very vocal during that birth and feeling euphoric afterwords. My husband said he was embarassed listening to me give birth, because it reminded him of how I sounded during sex.
I don't know for sure if I had an orgasm or not. But, I believe it's possible. Add to the fact that I'm a multi-orgasmic person anyway. Maybe that makes it more likely to experience orgasimic childbirth.
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5-11-2009 @ 6:00PM
Melinda Pillsbury-Foster said...In the 70s I was teaching natural childbirth (Bradley Technique) and heard from other teachers about orgasmic births. When my third daughter was born I experienced this myself. It was, shall we say, intense. There was no pain, just waves of sensation that built and then ebbed when the baby was in my arms. The aftermath went on for a good long time.
The birth took place at home and so the issues cites here were not present. The birth was entirely natural and the physician who was to have attended my birth did not make it as another of his patients was having a complex birth at the same time.
Remembering the experience still makes me smile. Yes. It happens.
5-09-2009 @ 7:11AM
Valerie Gommon said...I too have posted on this subject http://midwifevalerie.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/orgasmic-birth/. As a midwife it is obviously of interest to me - you can read more about me at www.3shiresmidwife.co.uk
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