Orgasmic Birth

September 28th, 2009 | Posted by Alison Spath in Good Reads

Yes, you read the title of this post right. (Go on – go back to look at the title now because I know you skipped it. I almost always breeze by titles unless the author points it out.)

Orgasmic Birth

That’s right! You can have an orgasm during child birth! Yes, YOU.

Tonight I had a support group meeting for mom’s who have had a cesarean section and are planning VBAC’s (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean) or just need some help with emotional recovery from their cesarean. Yes there’s a support group for everyone. I’m still waiting to find the support group for people who return library books late, except I’m sure no one would get there on time. Or at least I’m sure I would be late.

Tonight for our meeting instead of discussion we watched the birth documentary Orgasmic Birth.

When I reserved the room at the library for a space to watch this film I just wrote “Birth Documentary” on the form lest I raise any librarian eye brows.

Ladies, listen to me. If you think the Standard American Diet is screwed up, birth in the US is twice as screwed up. The acronym should be STAB – STandard American Birth. Your chances of having a cesarean section in the US is now 30% – that means 1 out of 3 women in the US are giving birth by cesarean section. Yes, some of those cesareans are necessary and save lives, but 30% is too high. Says who? Well, says the World Health Organization. The WHO states that any country with a cesarean rate over 15% is performing too many cesarean sections.

That paragraph is only the tippy tip of an iceberg of information buried deep beneath the surface. There is scads and scads of information out there about birth. Before I move on let me leave you with this: if you are not yet a mother, or if you plan to have more children, when the time comes for pregnancy and preparing yourself for child birth, read, read and read some more about child birth. During my first pregnancy all I read about was pregnancy, when I should have been reading about birth. Forget What to Expect When You’re Expecting. Read The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth by Henci Goer. Read Ina May Gaskin’s Guide to Childbirth. Read like your life and the life of your unborn child depends on it.

What does birth have to do with health? Everything. What’s my point here? Looking back, I wish someone would have given me this advice. I wish someone would have told me just how important birth is, and that it’s a rite of passage that will change every ounce of your being. Maybe with this little post I can ignite a spark of curiosity in you sooner than one was sparked in me.

Birth movies always get me all riled up, can ya tell?

After running Ava to and from dance class this afternoon I had to run out the door to get to my meeting. I finally got to enjoy the highly coveted PB&J Larabar on my way to the meeting. I think this picture sums up my feelings on this subject.

Orgasmic Larabar

Home after my meeting to enjoy what looks like something my girl Cindy would call dryer lint. But they tasted good! Really! Especially with some hummus. Don’t ask my mom though because she tried some dryer lint this afternoon and was not as impressed as I was.

Dryer Lint

After lint came chewy apples and bananas. I probably could have let them go a little longer but I was ready to turn that damn dehydrator off.

Home Dried Fruit

We also got a special delivery that I opened today, two little bundles of joy.

Two Bundles of Joy

(Freaking birth movies.)

Nature's Pride

Sent from FoodBuzz and Nature’s Pride for us to try and review, we’ll be busting into these babies tomorrow.

Signing off, wishing you many orgasms, both during childbirth and during what gets you in that mess in the first place.


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32 Responses

  • Whit says:

    I can’t type because I am laughing so hard that my tears have flooded my keyboard and ruined it. Sorry, but you do that to me.

  • Lizzy says:

    o the things that i learn from you! seriously i don’t even need school :) first how to dehydrate, and second about birth and orgasims. lessons learned!

    An i totally need to try some “lint” asap!!!

    night girly

  • Leianna says:

    Funny post, never thought that reading more about the actual birth would be better than just pregnancy in general. My hubby and I are planning on kids soon, so need to check out those books!
    Love all you dehydrated foods!

  • Liz says:

    Wow, that trailer was very interesting. I’ve not yet had a child, but when that time comes for me I do want to do some digging into more natural ways to have my child. It does not seem right to treat childbirth like surgery. Thanks for the info! And darn you and the pb&j larabar. Orgasmic huh?!

  • Cindy says:

    How come your self portraits always come out so cute?
    mine suck!

    Dryer lint is a SMOOTHIE goof ball but if your crackers taste like that than I guess I’ll keep waiting ~~JK
    did they turn out CRISPY? Mine never did, but they tasted great!

    the juice pulp you use REALLY effects the flavor! Carrots and apples Rock!
    I haven’t watched the video yet…is it depressing?

    I have had my babes…you know… my hips were made for crankin’ out kids (no kidding) but EVERYONE I know is getting C secs…and I just wonder why…

    I can think of one other person as of late excpet me who had a vaginal delivery. SAD…

    so glad you shed some light to this! Nice JOB chickie!

    I should be knitting HUH, and not reading blogs!
    neener neener.

    I skipped Mas
    I skipped Hissy

    I am just a train wreck today
    but I did make some nice din for hubs!
    see ya later

  • i have yet to see “the business of being born” but i will. i don’t want to be denied an orgasm!

  • Knowledge is power. I would have done so many things differently had I known what I know now, including turning down the birth defect screen which resulted in me fearfully having amnio and the failed epidural, which led to three additional attempts including a spinal, and not being able to walk for hours postdelivery but feeling every bit of back labor DURING. Did I mention we are done reproducing? 😉

    • Alison says:

      Sarah, I had the quad screen with Ava and got abnormal results showing an increased risk for down syndrome. So much needless worry and anxiety – I refused to do that test with Maxine and had a much more relaxed, enjoyable pregnancy because it. The “not knowing” was so much better than the needless worry that came from the abnormal results.

      • Cindy says:

        Hi, I just wanted to add…that we had that test run bc I was “advanced maternal age” sigh

        anyways…they informed us I “failed” our test and we needed to set up an amnio appt. (my age alone put me at the top of the scale and my hormone levels were a bit OFF (like me) so that was the reason…we passed the second screening with flying colors…but they never told us the screen just meant I should get further testing…not “YOU FAILED YOUR DOWNS TEST… We’re so sorry…etc”

        so for a few weeks we thought JJ had downs.

        NICE HUH…(it was horrible actually)

        I refused the Amnio…wasn’t risking another miscarriage…

        okay…onto happier things.

  • My sister-in-law was pregnant when I was pregnant. We are the same age. She was battling high BP and obesity before even conceiving due to her high-sodium, high-fat diet of processed food and lack of exercise. Her doctor warned her to take a hard look at her diet when she was diagnosed with toxemia. She still didn’t really comply. She had to have an emergency c-section and her daughter was born with a few minor health issues. I had normal BP throughout my pregnancy. I did not have toxemia and I went into labor naturally 2 days before my due date. I gave birth vaginally and asked to breast feed 45 minutes after delivery. I am not a doctor so I can’t say my SIL’s troubled pregnancy was due to her unhealthy lifestyle. But, I certainly think it played a part.

  • Paige says:

    LOL I looove these random facts. I’ve never had children yet, but I’ll keep this is mind!

  • Robin says:

    I can’t imagine choosing c-section as a choice. I was so scared when the doctor mentioned we may have to have a c-section on my second one. I delivered her less than an hour later, I obviously knew my body better than him when I refused.

  • Erin says:

    I want to view that trailer but I’m pretty sure JWU has a block on anything involving orgasms on the workplace network. Damn the man.

    I was just having a conversation with friends this weekend about birth because I had a dream the other night in which I was preggers and had to get an epidural and was FREAKING.OUT. I wonder what that translates to in real life? I will certainly be telling my prego co-worker about these books!

    Man, the female body is powerhouse, isn’t it??

  • Sharon says:

    As you know i had a 100% natural child birth (no drugs or csection) for both my children and i would call it far from Orgasmic. I would have love to be those women who can have an orgasim while in labor/delivery.

  • Great post! Yes, I think being informed about birth and birthing options is so important and is often not given enough attention. And yes, the C section rate is very high in the U.S. for so many reasons…

  • A says:

    Birth talk gets me all riled up too! I had my son with epidural but had my daughter (2nd born) natural. Both experiences were amazing but I totally recommend natural to anyone who is able. I wish I had been more educated before my first but I’m glad I got to have one of mine “the old fashioned way!” I’m all about doing things as natural as possible…. oh and breast feeding if you can too! I really thought I was going to BF my kids until college but they self weened themselves!
    Glad the dryer lint came out well. I’ll have to try them! How long did they take??
    Oh, and you should sprinkle cinnamon on your apples before you dry them. They are AWESOME!
    -A

  • Gah! I can’t watch it right now but really want to. I have always been surprised at how normal having a caesarean seems to be in America- much more so than in the UK even. Now I am all kinds of intrigued as to why! I’m planning on popping any little ones out soon though so I spose I have a while to read read read!!

  • Holly says:

    ohhh i took a women’s health class in college, and this was one of the topics we covered. LOVED this post – as a woman who may or may not get pregnant (who knows?), i think we deserve to be informed about ALL types of birthing options.

    love you girl – that is awesome you are a part of this group. soooo cool!

  • Wow, I may just need to have another baby.

    I didn’t end up making crackers with my juice pulp. Instead, I just let the pulp rot in the juicer until the day’s activities were complete.

    Yum! Love that bread. It’s B1G1 at our local market now, and we’ve been eating it all week. (BTW – how do you get Foodbuzz to send you stuff? I’ve been a member for a year now and have received nada!).

    • Alison says:

      Shawna – you have to tell FoodBuzz it’s ok to send you stuff, they sent me an email shortly after I signed up, asking if I wanted to try and review products, I had to fill out a form. I’d go to the “Featured Published Resource Center” (I think?) once you sign in at FoodBuzz and poke around.

  • Here-here to bringing attention and consciousness to birth on a food blog…thus reaching brand new (younger) and possibly not done having kids (or even started) women. I am one and done. Thank god, I had the natural, nondrugged birth I wanted. BUT it came only because of how proactive I was and how prepared I was and of course, there is some element of fate or luck involved too. As I sure you felt “prepared, well-read, and ready” for your ala natural birth too…and sigh, yours didnt go as planned. Sigh and I am sorry for you my sweet mama friend. We’ve chatted bout this on email but robbing a woman of the birth she had planned is just a horrible trick. Yes, the baby is healthy,but the mom is feeling jipped and robbed and it’s so important to give a voice to that. Thank you for raising consciousness, for giving back to the community with ICAN, for being you. And if I had it to do all over again, I would have just had the baby on the floor of my living room. UA Childbirth. Just me and hubby. Call me reckless, but that’s what I would do. But since we are one and done we shall never know how this plan would work. But in my mind’s eye, that’d be the birthplan for the next one. Thank you. I could write a novel. And have :)
    xoxo
    averie

  • Jane/you-know-who says:

    “dryer lint”???…..I could taste cumin and all the dryer lint that I’ve ever eaten never had one of my favorite spices (cumin) in it.

    kisses…bye for now

    ps. love the beautiful self portrait

  • Michelle says:

    I am a “Lactavist” too! I had three wonderful childbirths and nursed all three of my babes (my poor boobs are a testament to that lol)

    I want to see The Business of Being Born!

  • Erika says:

    Great post but like some others, I am not in a place where I can actually watch the video…:)

    I hope that I do not lose some of my bloggie friends, but I am the complete opposite of a lot of opinions on here. My two children were born via c-section because both were breech. I like some things natural but I am also a big believer in science and modern medicine. And I think the two could coexist…in time maybe. But for the safety of all involved, we chose the c-sections. I do not feel that I was robbed of anything. Sure, the birth involved more doctors and some morphine (which really made me itchy) but other than that, I had two incredibly healthy babies and to me that was all that mattered. My recovery was not bad either. I attribute that to staying active throughout my pregnancies, but I healed up pretty quickly and thanks to a high pain tolerance was off the major drugs after a few days.

    I think that we all deserve options, but I also think that what works for one is no better or worse than what works for another. Totally different tangent, but I find that mothers can be one of the most judgemental groups out there and I think it would be really nice If we could support each other more even if we do things differently. Parenting is hard enough!

    Ok, off my soapbox and I will be watching the video this evening! :)

    • Alison says:

      Erika, you are exactly right – we do all deserve options. My main concern is women educating themselves to do whatever it takes to avoid the knife if they can. I’m glad that cesarean is an option and has with out a doubt saved lives. I strongly believe though that cesarean sections are over used in the US, and women are consenting without truly knowing the risks, being misinformed by their doctors, scheduling cesareans for convenience rather than a true medical need. Birth matters.

      I’ve had two cesareans myself and I too was lucky that my surgeries and recoveries went well. I attempted a VBAC with Maxine but due to complications I consented to the repeat cesarean when I was in labor. Some women are NOT so lucky – and they don’t learn about these things until after their baby is here and realize their cesarean could have been avoided if they’d been better informed. (This would be me and my first cesarean.)

      And I also agree that mothers can be very judgmental of each other and the choices we make – I don’t necessarily agree that what works for someone is no better or worse that what works for another – but I do agree that we need to be supportive of each other’s choices and help each other learn and grow to be the best mothers we can be.

      • Erika says:

        After reading your response, I realized I actually disagree with my previous statement of better versus worse. Obviously there are many things that I think are just not right even if they work for you – something like convenience of fast food for kids might work for someone, but I completely disagree with it. I don’t always express my thoughts clearly! :) But I think we are in agreement that information up front and understanding all of the options is what is needed. And then the follow up support when the person chooses.

        Great post, and I finally watched the video. Certainly an interesting take on birthing!

        • Alison says:

          I think I knew what you were trying to say – and yes, for some things “what works for you” is no big deal, but happy meals and junk food is a perfect example of something that is definitely NOT better, at least not in my mind. Thanks for adding so thoughtfully to the discussion and weighing in for the cesarean mom’s out there! There are plenty of women who have had cesareans and are completely satisfied with their birth experiences – a healthy baby is of course important, but mama’s experience and feelings matter too!

  • Mollie says:

    Ali, thanks for this message, and for all of your thoughtful responses to the comments. I didn’t realize that you had 2 sections, and had tried for a VBAC. My son was a c-section, after my water spontaneously breaking 5 weeks early and finding out that he was breech. We had planned on birthing at a birth center, in a jacuzzi, with candles, music, the works. I have been considering getting involved with Philadelphia’s ICAN to learn to move past some of the difficulties I have with what happened, and your post renewed my desire to do so. Thanks :)