A new documentary titled Orgasmic Birth made the rounds of worldwide film festivals in 2008 and now the concept is getting mainstream coverage in a report on ABC’s 20/20 news show. The same show also featured segments on breastfeeding and the trend of home births with little or no medical intervention.

In the 20/20 segment, one midwife reported that, in an informal, non-scientific survey, 21 percent of the women had orgasms during labor. Even taking into account that women using a midwife rather than a conventional obstetrician are more likely to have the type of birth that would encourage an orgasm, this number seems high.

Then again, it is called “childbirth’s best-kept secret.”

The film was produced by Debra Pascali-Bonaro, a childbirth expert, 26-year speaker in childbirth education, and a Lamaze-certified veteran in maternity care, as well as the mother of three sons. The film won the Audience Choice Award at the 2008 Motherbaby International Film Festival in Bermuda.

The film, available for sale now, chronicles the birth stories of 11 different women. Births include home births, water births, and all-natural, mid-wife assisted births in hospital-affiliated birthing centers. The film features commentary from renowned experts in the field of midwifery, obstetrics and natural childbirth, including Christiane Northrup, MD, Ina May Gaskin and Elizabeth Davis. In spite of the title, the film is not pornographic, but is explicit and intimate.

Orgasmic childbirth is not a new idea but the film is the first truly intimate exploration of the feat. In her book In Labor, author Barbara K. Rothman writes, “Birth has much in common with orgasm; the hormone oxytocin is released, there are uterine contractions, nipple erection, and under the best circumstances for birth, an orgasmic feeling.”

Every mother has experienced the euphoria after her child is born, the great feeling of accomplishment, the surge of hormones, an exhausted, exhilarated state. But it’s possible to achieve those emotions during the birthing process, as well.

The filmmaker says the natural childbirth methods used to achieve an orgasmic birth are statistically safer than the standard delivery methods involving drugs and that often result in emergency c-sections, practiced today in many parts of the world.

The film’s Web site publishes reader-submitted ecstatic or orgasmic childbirths, and each has something in common—the mother is permitted to labor in a relaxing, calm environment with the physical and emotional support she needs to allow her body to do what it is designed to do.
To me, an orgasmic childbirth is merely the ultimate experience of a natural, non-medical childbirth experience.

Many people, including women who have experienced a painful, rather than sensuous, natural childbirth may pooh-pooh the concept, while others classify it as incestuous or somehow “dirty.” But, Pascali-Bonaro asserts that childbirth is an integral part of a woman’s sexuality and sensuality. Additionally, she states that the quality of the birth experience “makes a profound difference on how the woman feels, how the family feels and, ultimately, how the baby feels.”

An orgasmic birth may not be for everyone. Some women may shy away from that level of intimacy or in some way, feel that it is dirty. But if you can take something that the media and millions of women view as “painful,” and turn it into the most pleasurable experience possible, why not strive for that?

More information

20/20 segment