A Skeptical Take on Orgasmic Childbirth
By Danell Swim
February 27, 2008
This story on trailblazing midwife Ina May Gaskin references the fact that some women ‘O’ during delivery. Gaskin wrote a book called “Spiritual Midwifery” which I’m sure is quite helpful for some people, but when my doula gave me a copy, it should have been the red flag alerting me to the fact that we would not be a good fit style-wise. (At one point during my labor, she urged me to chant “ohm.” Unable to speak, I summoned the strength mid-contraction to make a slashing motion across my neck with my finger as a threat to her.) There’s a discussion in the article on home births, which Gaskin advocates, but I’m not going to get into that debate because next thing you know we’ll be commenting on what’s the best Phil Collins song. (Probably “In the Air Tonight” if we can’t include covers like “You Can’t Hurry Love” I’m sure Genesis stuff is okay.) No, I’m totally stuck on one thing: Orgasmic childbirth.
Okay, now I gotta say something to that. I truly agree to a point that state of mind is important to the labor process. I know women who had horrible hospital births and subsequent great home births (not doing the debate though!) because they felt so much more comfortable and in control at home. And I know women who had great hospital births because they were calm and used breathing techniques and felt supported and so on. But there’s a point at which I think we get into the idea that you can completely control things with your mind, and I patently disagree. I know ladies with powerful wills and all the preparation in the world who had very difficult births, even if nothing technically went wrong. And feeble-minded me went into the birthing experience intending to do it naturally and armed with childbirth classes and my high pain tolerance and my special mix CD and my favorite scents and an entourage of supportive people and a detailed birth plan. At the end of it, I had an epidural, a vacuum extraction, and all I wanted to do was watch “Entertainment Tonight” on the hospital television because John Tesh’s mug was bland enough to be comforting. I tell people he was my doula. Birth is one of those things you can only control so much, and after that it’s a crapshoot. If I had the kind of mental power to turn my labor into orgasms, I’d be sitting at home making household objects into gold bricks with my mind right now.
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Although the author has a good point - you never know what your labor will be like - she is too skeptical about the possibility of mind-over-matter. I didn’t believe it either until I saw a video of a woman actually having an orgasm during labor. Yes, you don’t know what will happen in your labor, but I think if it’s at least a *possibility* why not go for it?? That’s my goal for this birth anyway. I have a choice to enjoy my birth. Maybe I don’t have a choice as to any unforeseen negative circumstances that may occur in my birth, but I do have a choice to have a positive attitude about it. And if that results in an orgasmic birth, Hallelujah!!