Orgasm during childbirth?! Tell me this is a lie!!

[kitegirl]

A friend of mine has a very competitive MIL. This friend has just given birth to her first, a nightmare labour with every possible intervention you could imagine (she's cool about it, bless her). Her MIL won't stop going on how amazing all her births were, saying how she just 'breathed the babies out' and how all her births were such ecstatic, spiritual experiences that she actually had an orgasm during each one!

Now I know a birth can be enjoyable, but an orgasm??? I've never heard this happening. Is this a case of one-upmanship? I told my friend that there's only one place to find out and that's Mumsnet... so what do you think?

there is a big difference though between weirdy prurient male interest in this sort of thing (Hello, all you hairy truckers reading this ) and a physical/hormonal response that just happens to some people unbidden (e.g. Cluck - not me, I had a cs ).

NP Did you say "I think you'll find you only get that on BUPA?"

I am happy to tell you what it was like actually, if anyone is genuinely interested.

You know you want to cluck....

go on then...

I think there is a difference between experiencing an, erm, unworked for (iyswim) orgasm and passing your midwife your rampant rabbit and saying 'while you check how many centimetres, would you give me a going over with this please'.

I can quite see how you could find yourself having a unexpected orgasm during labour, lots of hormones, contractions... i mean orgasms release endorphins don't they, and they are known to help with pain relief, so it makes sense that your body could make this happen. it could be a perfectly natural part of childbirth.

an orgasm is nothing more than a biological means to an end. for men, it deposits the sperm. for women during sex it is supposed to dip the cervix to pick up the sperm to aid conception.

it actually makes perfect sense that nature could design the childbirth process to incorporate a little pain relief - can't anyone see it that way?

I however, had to make do with gas & air. oh well, never mind!!

Thanks CarolinaMoon was feeling a little bit, erm, sleazy there for a moment.

PMSL at Cluck's beard.. (Careful.. I seem to recongnise your wit and typing style..)

Thing is, my means-to-an-end labour provoking orgasms where not even arousing per se.. it was almost a mechnancial thing.. I just kept at it until my womb got the idea and carried on contracting. It's an excellent way to start labour if you are term or as good as,.. but to me, it's not a turn-on at all really...

does no-one else think its not an orgasm they are having but a side-effect of the diamorphine (which made me laugh like a lunatic)

I'm not sure that anyone's recollection of childbirth is 100% accurate except for the 10 minutes afterwards

Your brain reconstructs it all very quickly

So I never really believe these sorts of stories

I can accept that it might happen unbidden, although I'd still be a bit bemused by it! I did feel an overwhelming sense of relief and achievement as I said when the head was out, but I don't think you could say it was orgamsmic. My bone of contention is when people start to equate childbirth with sex, especially men. It becomes just another perverted thing for them to get off on then and turns us yet again into sexual things rather than human beings. All our emotions and thoughts are related to sex, obviously.

Everything about women becomes perverted eventually.

my fellow nurses and i used to just giving a withering pitying look

or stare really hard and say "well its so smalli cant see it"

or something

I think I'm just jealous. My thoughts at 10cm dilated seem to more of the "somebody shoot me" type than the "someone stroke me" variety...

a freind claims she did !!! I have always doubted it....

SJ, tried that and I though it had worked, water gone and everything. Turns out I had just peed .

funny i always make a REAL effort to rehearse the birth experience with dp in the hours and days proceeding it so that i wont forget it!

I second CluckCluckCluck's comments - this is far more likely to be an unconscious reaction - like a hammer to the knee

I really doubt women are out there asking for some privacy while the midwife stands to one side

they are there for one reason only after all

Another orgasm-hindering thought that I seemed to remember flitting through my head at 10cm dilated was "I think I may have just shat everywhere...."

weeeell if you insist
(don't get much chance to talk about this at the school gates)
I was on the gas and air and having very frequent and very painful contractions. The pain was sooooo bad that I had ort of gone into a trance - I was sort of inside myself, just getting through it. (I certainly wasn't thinking about "the baby" - just about getting through it.) The sound of the heart beat on the monitor I used to sort of hypnotise myself. I was leaning over a beanbag and I could feel this trendous weight pushing down against the back of my clitoris and my bladder and I suddenly found myself (mentally) in the place where you go when you are concertrating on having an orgasm.
And then I felt one - just this enormous rush of pleasure and release and relief. I have n o idea if anyone else noticed. I suspect not - there was only DP in the room anyway and maybe a midwife but I wouldn't have given a stuff anyway. I was just so wrapped up in the birth and the pain and the experience.

Oh SJ, I was going to say that but I thought the pee incident was enough .

Oh pmsl at some of these comments

Mumsnetters are the buisness sometimes
I couldn't even imagine masturbating during labour! eeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!

No it wasn't the morphine NP I only had G&A.
(PS IF you recognise me SJ please keep it to yourself )

That sounds quite ok actually Cluck.. A nice discreet orgmasmic experience to take your mind off the pain... I wish I could have found a "place" that was not governed by incontience and suicidal tendencies. I'll never be mother Earth I fear...

Yes but did you do the scene from 'When Harry met Sally'?