Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Telly addicts

Related: Film discussion forum.

Flip

Original poster

GMTV on orgasmic labour

14 replies

stainesmassif · 25/03/2009 15:36

Did anyone see this today? I want to rant with someone about how sick I am of hearing the media refer to labour as a horrific experience.

having just given birth 3 months ago, it certainly wasn't orgasmic, but neither was it as tortuous as i'd been led to believe beforehand. mind you, i had an epidural half way through!

dr hillary and lorraine kelly treated the woman talking about it (started watching half way through, don't know who she is)as if she was a lunatic. the continued coverage of labour as a scary, painful, never to be repeated experience doesn't help first time mums have a positive birth.

rant over

OP posts:

Original poster

stainesmassif · 25/03/2009 16:07

www.gm.tv/video/?vxSiteId=12908561-6e9e-4564-ab81-abe6b1d2f011&vxChannel=Latest&vxClipId=1441 gmtv3309&vxBitrate=700
how do you hide links???? this is it, anyway

OP posts:

sashmum · 25/03/2009 16:11

i totally agree with you, i didn't see GMTV as had to go off to work, but i must say that even when i had my twins the birth was an 'enjoyable' experience, obviously it hurt a bit but certainly wasn't awful.
Maybe i was just lucky

Rhubarb · 25/03/2009 16:17

Define enjoyable.
My idea of enjoyable is having a beer with mates, or watching a really good film, or the first day of a holiday and the sun is shining.

Childbirth wouldn't be there in my list of enjoyable things.

I had dd at the hospital with an epidural. ds I had at home with no pain relief. The second birth was better than the first, but there is no way I would term it 'enjoyable'.

Slightly frightening, painful, surreal and exhausting, yes.
Enjoyable, no.

Original poster

stainesmassif · 25/03/2009 16:24

i made the mistake of updating my facebook status 2 days before due date with 'stainesmassif is nervous about labour' - cue horror stories from 'friends'...i quote 'there is no pain like it, you think it's bad, then it gets 100 times worse'. thanks a bunch!

my point is that the constant reference to painful births make any first time mums more nervous than they need to be. and nervous mums feel more pain. the pain was inconsequential as soon as it was over.

OP posts:

sashmum · 25/03/2009 16:30

ok enjoyable was possibily not quite the word i should have used, but it honestly was a positive experience, but then again i was induced and had an epidural so that could explain a lot!

Also time does dim the pain so, maybe i'm remembering with rose tinted specs LOL and it hurt like hell!

midnightexpress · 25/03/2009 16:35

Hmm, well I'm afraid it seems like yet another stick to beat ourselves with.

If you don't have a vaginal birth/lose all the babyweight immediately/breastfeed successfully/get your baby to sleep instantly then you have somehow failed as a mother. And now you have to have a bloody orgasm during delivery too. Makes me . The fact is that for many women, labour is frightening and very painful. For others it is painful but empowering. And perhaps for others it is enjoyable. But every woman is individual and I hope this doesn't become something that women feel they 'should' experience.

Rhubarb · 25/03/2009 16:40

Re the horror stories - is that not part and parcel of being a human being? If you told someone you were going to the dentist you'd be swamped with horror stories about the dentist.

I agree that it's not nice, but I don't think you'll ever stop this from happening.

Orgasmic childbirth goes too far in the other direction.

Original poster

stainesmassif · 25/03/2009 16:55

good point rhubarb, and maybe i'm still feeling a bit sensitive on behalf of myself 3 months ago, but i was so cross with lorraine and hillary for shooting the woman down in flames!

i think it's refreshing to hear that some women can make labour that positive an experience. i wouldn't aim for it myself, but good on them, i say.

incidentally, the one ante natal class that i attended advised masturbation could aid the production of oxytocin during labour. i think i'd still choose the epidural next time!

OP posts:

Jbck · 25/03/2009 17:00

They discussed this on The Wright Stuff on Monday too. I'm still a bit tbh.

They did have poll results tho' that (of those surveyed & it could have been 12 people) 73% found giving birth more painful than they'd expected.

bluebump · 25/03/2009 17:03

They showed a clip of the film/documentary that this has all stemmed from and I loved the way Lorraine said they couldn't show any more of the film because it was a bit "porny"

belgo · 25/03/2009 17:04

I'm sure there is a biological reason for this happening, I do believe the women when they say they experienced this. Childbirth does not always have to be an awful experience. My ds's birth five months ago was almost the 'perfect' birth - a home water birth, dimmed lights, just me, dh and one midwife, and I was high on endorphins and oxytocin. It was still painful, but I can't imagine the pain now, and breastfeeding in the following weeks was worse.

MarsLady · 25/03/2009 17:05

Have any of you seen the DVD Orgasmic Birth?

It's actually a very good DVD. I went to one of the London screenings. I don't think anyone would say that birth doesn't hurt and actually despite the title it's not as bad as you'd think. I've supported lots of women in birth and some have had "orgasmic" births (for want of a better phrase)and others have had less orgasmic experiences. The majority of them though have come through with feeling of pure joy.

I don't think that this DVD is about having a new stick with which to beat people. We all have very different experiences and it's about sharing that.

Mumcentreplus · 25/03/2009 17:06

enjoyable?...

I suppose it did feel kinda like doing a basket-ball sized poo so when it was over there was an element of satisfaction but enjoyable?

Labour certainly for me was not as bad as it has been described by others...I really thought just be calm and go with the flow...but the part I did enjoy was holding the baby in my arms and labour made that possible

Rhubarb · 25/03/2009 20:41

lol at satisfaction felt in doing an oversized poo!

I'm afraid that when you feel your flange tearing, it's far from an orgasmic experience.

There will be a danger of women smugly reciting their 'perfect' births to nervous mums-to-be. In fact I do remember getting cross at people who told me about their 'perfect' births and about how pain was all psychological .

Funny how parenthood continues to sway from one extreme to the other with most things. So you'll have the pessimists at one end, declaring that death is preferable to the horrors of childbirth, and at the other end the perfect birthers who declare that if it hurts, you're not 'doing' it right.

Same with weaning, toilet training, breastfeeding etc etc.

Happily most of us are content to remain in the middle!

Flip