Some women have orgasms during childbirth.
*crickets*
Let me repeat that: some women, as the baby is exiting the birth canal, can experience a tremendous orgasm.
Updated: I just talked to my mom about this, and she told me she had an orgasm when birthing my younger sister. OMG.
On January 2, ABC’s 20/20 will air a documentary called Orgasmic Childbirth, where women share their experiences of having an orgasm while their child is exiting their body.
In a brief story in the New York Times, Tamra Larter, a woman featured in the documentary, describes how pleasurable her birthing experience was.
“The phyical touch and nurturing was just really comforting to me,” Larter said. “It was happening, and I could hardly breathe, and it was like, ‘Oh, that feels good.’ That’s all I could say really.” During her labor, Larter and her husband were kissing and caressing each other, as seen in the documentary. Here’s the movie trailer:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG_6IVmXvr0]
Researchers say it’s a mix of the chemicals that go through the woman’s body during labor, coupled with the position of the baby, that can cause orgasm.
I don’t know about you, but during my labor, all I wanted was a bullet in the head. It was beyond the worst pain I’ve ever experienced. My mom later told me she thought I did a good job managing the pain, but it was only because I laid on the bed in the fetal position and just cried silently to myself that God would eventually end this suffering.
The women say the documentary is meant to show women that childbirth is nothing to fear and that the pain is tolerable ( I call bulls#%@ on that). I don’t mind the point of this documentary, but I do feel almost like they’re telling women who suffer through their labors that they’re not good enough moms. Like it’s unnatural to hate to be in that kind of pain for that long. Like something must be wrong with us if we didn’t have an intense physical connection with our child.
I hated every almost moment of my labor. Maybe the fact that both my kids were born by C-section contributed to that. But I’m happy that my kids were born healthy, however they got here. A hundred years ago, I probably would have died during childbirth, as my kids were too large to pass through my pelvis.
I’ve very happy for all the women who were able to have a “natural” childbirth, and even the ones who enjoyed it so much they were able to have an orgasm.
How about you all? How was your birth experience?
………………………….utterly speechless! I can’t even begin to wrap my head around the thought of this. An orgasm? While pushing something the size of a watermelon out of the opening the size of a lemon?! (Look Who’s Talking is my favorite movie, lol) There aint no waaaaaay! An orgasm was the farthest thing on my mind. If anything I was hating one because it’s what got me in that predicament in the first place! Nothing about the pain, the back labor, the pushing, the crowning, etc was intimate, made me think of caressing someone or anything of that nature! Please remind me when this comes on….I call it BULL@#%$!!!!
Um, I heard about this on twitter yesterday and I have read about it in an Alice Walker novel but never thought it could actually happen. I just think it is kinda weird – but if a person does have an orgasm I can see how it would help push the baby out. All of those contractions certainly couldn’t hurt!
I’ve heard of this previously but only through some pretty extreme naturalist parenting sort of environments (you know the types- strict vegan, only allow natural toys for children, and support extreme lotus birth). Although my VBAC was one of the most empowering and incredible experiences of my life- orgasm was the farthest thing from my mind. I can’t see that happening for me but more power to the folx who do pull it off.
Honestly I find it to be a bit offensive to the beauty of the birth experience to overtly focus on such a thing and actively sexualize something which is so pure and beautiful (and no I didn’t bother to watch the clip, just sounds too out there).
I had a great birth experience. Epidurals are great! I was singing and happy and could feel what was going on with my uterus without the annoyance of the pain, which was just fascinating to me. The pain and lack of downtime between contractions was horrible and I wanted a bat upside my head before they gave me the epidural. In fact, had I not gotten pain relief, my labor would have been much longer than it was because the nurses said I was fighting the contractions because of the pain.
I think if some women want to experience the pain of childbirth the ENTIRE time, go ahead with your masochistic selves, but the orgasm thing? I can believe it I suppose. But don’t expect me to try and find out for myself. I’ll just take their word for it. I’m just amazed at anyone who wants to be kissed and caressed while giving birth. I didn’t want to be touched or talked to while I was in pain. But I agree with Yolanda about the sexualization of childbirth.
I heard about this too and there is a website about it I think. Unfortunately my birth experiences weren’t a happy time in terms of relationships. I had a C-section with my daughter after being in labor for 20 hours and a VBAC with my son.
With my son it was too late to get an epidural so I felt all the pain. I did get to see him come out (had a mirror) but other than that I just wanted them to get him out.
My nurse midwife (she rocked!) had the nerve to tell me to wait. I was ready to push and she wanted me to wait? I lost my mind right about then. My best friend took two steps back because she didn’t want to get hit, lol! Orgasm was definately the last thing on my mind…
Wow, that’s kinda amazing. But.. um.. yeah. C-section over here and it wasn’t pleasant at all!!
My labor was kind of out of the ordinary since it was non-existent. I NEVER went into labor, so I am scared to death of what the experience of having a second child will be like. My daughter was breech and scheduled for a c-section 5 days before my due date. Up until that time she was just chillin’, which has always made me wonder if my doctor really knew what the hell she was doing when coming up with the time line. It all seemed right, but she could have been a couple weeks off or maybe Miss J really was just chillin’ and in no hurry to meet me.
I went in to prep feeling good. Until the doctor told me that I had a growth on one of my ovaries and that I might have to have an ovary removed!!! WTF, I just came in here to have a child, I thought. At the end of the day, I had a beautiful little girl and got to keep both ovaries… minus a tennis ball sized cyst. So, yeah, an orgasm would have been great!
I’m speechless. I’ve given birth to four children, two vaginal and two C-sections, and there was nothing orgasmic about pushing a head with a 10″ circumference out of me.