Orgasmic birth an old midwives' tale

It's exactly 30 years since the publication of Tennessee childbirth guru Ina May Gaskin's Spiritual Midwifery. This hippie heyday instructional manual became the home-birth movement's bible, while stories of the commune where Gaskin lived were the stuff of dreams for anyone "seriously into" natural birth.

How disappointing to discover last week a flyer promoting the private screening of a new short film, Orgasmic Birth — the Best Kept Secret, by none other than this weary, world-renowned midwife.

Curious to see what her contemporary take on modern birthing practices would reveal, I logged on to www.orgasmicbirth.com, only to discover a much greyer Gaskin still expounding — "it is possible to have an ecstatic birth — in fact, it is the best natural high that I know of".

Now I admit that childbirth can come close to a fairly intense if not reverential experience, but having delivered three children vaginally (two at home and one in a labour ward) and having experienced an orgasm, I can confidently report there is nothing remotely similar between them.

If ever there was a reason for women to be suspicious of natural childbirth, it is the "orgasmic" vaginal delivery and "placenta-eating" claptrap that is trotted out every time home birth is put back on the health service agenda.

Yes, that's right, the Rudd Government recently launched a discussion paper on improving maternity services, including the option of home birth. And some men in the 1970s actually ate their partner's afterbirth! (Not that I know any women who would even entertain the idea but it actually makes more physiological sense for the mother to digest this iron-rich piece of offal for the sole purpose of warding off exhaustion and post-natal depression. Why on earth the father would feel thus compelled is beyond me.)

But I digress.

Witness the following testimonials from the current "Orgasmic Birth" website under the banner "Please share your ecstatic birth story with us": "The pushing was so much easier while smiling. As soon as I started to smile, the pain completely changed." Or "I was so relaxed in the warm water that I actually started to miss my chance to push with the contractions … It was so surreal. My husband actually sat in the corner of the room reading a paper … and joked with me, 'Just let me know if you need anything!' " Or "I sang my birth song, a low moan, and he (my husband) sang with me. I was surprised by how much birth sounded like sex!" Continued...

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