"I had an orgasm while I was giving birth"

Story from The Motherish by Penny Shipway

We were driving to our local farmer’s market when my friend Michelle dropped the bombshell that she had an orgasm during labour.

I almost drove us off the road.

“I said to my husband, I think I’m going to come!” Michelle said.

“What!?” I said.

Michelle revealed to me that she hadn’t told too many people about this scientific phenomenon because she was unsure of how it would be received.

Understandably.

It’s not quite the sensation you would envisage while birthing your beloved offspring. I laughed and told her, “Well while you were orgasming during labour, I was yelling ‘this is so f***ed!’” Because, let’s face it, birth is not usually synonymous with having a good time. But what my friend says is absolutely true. Orgasming during labour is a thing.

And I’m not talking about using sex toys or playing around with your partner in order to take your focus off the pain of birth. This is about a woman experiencing an orgasm naturally as she is giving birth to her child. However, when it comes to explaining why this natural phenomenon occurs, things can get a little more complex.

Some say it could be due to the position of the baby in the vaginal canal, giving the same sensation a penis would give as it rubs a woman’s G-spot or vulva, for example. You know, the way a lucky few of us can experience an orgasm “inside” and not via the clitoris. Others cite rushes of blood or perhaps the release of the hormone oxytocin, otherwise known as “the love hormone”.

Michelle, a Sunshine Coast massage therapist, explained the feeling as cramps and orgasm combined. “Of course I still felt all the pain,” Michelle says of the feeling that occurred in the last hour or two of birth.

“It must have been the pressure on my spot, who knows! I just felt it went on forever and was definitely pleasurable, but not so much in a sexual way, more in a sensual ‘I’m woman and I’m kicking ass right now’ way,” Michelle said.

I did a lot of meditation and focus before the birth and sent a lot of female energy to my vagina. It was kind of funny to be honest, but I can’t say I was surprised. All I know is I didn’t move because I didn’t want the sensation to stop and then my legs went numb – then pins and needles,” Michelle continued.

Australian obstetrician/gynaecologist (OBGYN) and media personality, Dr Gino Pecoraro, says while orgasms are complicated and can depend on how a person is wired as to how their body reacts to an orgasm, the idea of women experiencing an orgasmic sensation during labour has “biological plausibility”. Dr Pecoraro believes they are most likely due to the amount of activity occurring in the genital area.

“Labour is genital-centric. The body is thinking about genitals and there’s an increase in blood flow, and an increase in pressure on the uterus, and labour’s rhythmic contractions,” Dr Pecoraro says.

FULL STORY HERE