Sunday, December 21, 2008

Orgasmic Birth

Ok, this is my attempt to stop feeling guilty about the wildly intermittent variability (is that an oxymoron?) of my blogging...

I know this post about the film "Orgasmic Birth" was a couple weeks ago on Motherlode http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/11/orgasms-during-childbirth/, but the film hasn't aired yet, so I'm not too late. (It will air Jan. 2.)

While researching my book, I did discover that some women have reported having orgasms during birth (yeah for them) so I am not shocked by this. What is more surprising to me is the huge number of negative comments posted about the film/concept/title on the blog. Yes, birth can be incredibly painful, especially if we are in a strange place (aka the hospital), surrounded by strangers (aka the OB), and not allowed to move (b/c of the bed/IV/monitor etc.)

But why is orgasmic birth such a mental leap for so many women? And why is the knee-jerk reaction to the concept annoyance or hostility?