Natural Birth

I put this DVD on to watch as I was filled with high expectations from the title that I was going to be informed as to how I could have achieved an orgasmic birth. My birth was wonderful, amazing, empowering etc etc, but no alas I did not achieve the big O.

I have to say that the DVD is filled with great birth stories, expert opinions and facts about hospital vs home births. It gives a new slant on how birth is part of a womans sexual life, that it can be passionate and as Ina May Gaskin put it “Birth sounds like a woman having great sex”.

We have recognised for a long time that endorphins and oxytocin are present both at conception and birth and that the highest levels of oxytocin you will ever have are in the moments straight after birth as you are falling in love with your baby, but I had not really taken that one step further (other than when talking about naturally inducing labour) to recognise that birth can actually be a sensuous, sexual experience.

In terms of stories, in particular I liked Piper and Chaz. Piper was in full blown labour but had no idea, she remembers that she went to another place “…we all went there together” she said and as the baby was born, they all sang happy birthday. I wish I had thought of that! She also states that she only felt pain whilst she was in the car, which fits exactly with my Psychology of Giving Birth Programme when I talk about car journeys being filled with anxiety and sometimes being a factor in labour slowing down or stopping.

Trisha and Arp also caught my attention. Trisha was screaming and to a viewer this sounded like pain, but she explained that she just needed to scream, it wasn’t pain “…I just needed to shout, it felt very satisfying”. As Trisha is summing up she talks about how she is so proud of herself and how there’s not many times that you can say that to the world.

That really struck a cord with me. So many of us are achieving great things but rarely do we actually feel proud of ourselves. Birth can be one of those moments which you can share with the world that yes, you are proud of yourself.

The thing which was missing for me were specific techniques, instructions and research to show just how you can achieve the big O during the big L. So that’s my next project – I can see a visit to The Farm in Tennessee coming on, as they seem to manage a 21% big O rate there!

You can get the DVD from the Orgasmic Birth website.