Orgasmic Birth

The other day I was reading about a fairly new documentary titled, "Orgasmic Birth."

The point of the movie being women can enjoy childbirth, rather than suffer through it. Yes, childbirth can be a positive, orgasmic experience.

Where was this video when I was pregnant the first time? Oh my gosh!

The first time I was pregnant I spent nine months wondering how on earth I was going to get the baby out. Every time I thought about this I started hyper ventilating, among other things, and quickly put it out of my mind.

This was not a good thing. No. It was very bad. Especially since I chose a drug free birthing experience.

"Your birth plan says you don't want any drugs, so I'm not going to ask you if you want drugs again, okay?" asks the nurse.

And so it went until I was about 8 cm dilated, "give me drugs, waaaaaaaaaaah!"

"Oh, no drugs now," says the nurse. It's too late," "Besides you're 8cm. You're almost there."

Ask any kid in a car, two hours away, plus another hour of pushing is not almost there. It's not even close.

The main problem with my first birthing experience was not the pain of child birth, although that was very, very bad. The problem was the massive build up of fear for nine months. Then when it came time to deliver, literally, I had no tools for relaxation to turn to, only the weapon of mass destruction, FEAR.

Not only could I not relax, but I couldn't even remember to breathe. Not once. Thankfully, Stefan was very good at helping me remember to breathe.

"Thank you, Stefan!"

What did I learn in my birthing classes I wondered? Nothing that was helping me get through labor now.

Then when I was pregnant with my second child, I spoke to a friend who had a calm positive, even enjoyable, pain free birthing experience. And it was her first birthing experience.

"I want that, too," I thought to myself. Then I made up my mind, "And I'm going to have it." So everyday while I swam, well that was only about 4-5 days a week, I chanted my mantra. It went something like, "easy labor, easy child birth."

I repeated it for the entire 45-60 minute period of exercise. And I believed it.

When I went into labor the second time, I had my surf videos, my husband, my friend, and my mantra to calm me. I especially chanted the mantra during contractions, to which I had ONLY 10 nearly vomit inducing painful contractions.

Ten horrible contractions compared to the first time where I had six straight hours of contractions, with barely more than 30 seconds between them.

Now, I know a lot of people might say, "the second labor is always easier than the first." However, I've heard plenty of birth stories that are quite the contrary. I attribute the relative ease of my second labor to my calm. Calm created from months of meditation and mantra chanting prior to going into heavy physical labor.

As to the issue of child birth feeling orgasmic. Hmmmm? I suppose their are similarities. I pushed both kids out for slightly more than an hour.

If the feeling of orgasm is one of release, combined with a cosmic I'm one with all that is kind of feeling, for me anyways. Then the feeling of finally getting a watermelon sized person out of my birthing canal could be conceived of as orgasmic release. But at the time, I thought of it more as RELIEF!

"Thank god he's out," I thought to myself. "And why do those nurses keep asking me if I need anything, now?"

But the greatest thing I got from child birth is a feeling of empowerment. Because if I can live through that, I can live through anything.