Is Birth Sexual?

Yesterday I attended a workshop on writing for publication on the topics of pregnancy and childbirth. The meeting took place in the home of one of my midwives named Christy; sociologist Barbara Katz Rothman was our guest speaker. The participants were mostly midwives, doulas and other homebirth advocates, along with three breastfed babies who happily suckled at their pleasure, while their mothers brainstormed ways of storming the world for natural childbirth. And then there was me. I'm the middle-of-the-road, don't-fit-in-anbody's categories girl; the person who seems drawn to stirring up new ideas (often controversial) made from combining old opposites into something fresh and different.

A big conversation emphasis during the workshop was, not surprisingly, the skyrocketing Ceserean rate and the best ways to help women discover paths to healthy natural births through our personal stories, as well as more political and academic writing. Barbara emphasized the need to meet people in their worldview and find a way of communicating about a holistic approach to birth that resonates with a given audience's needs, rather than trying to convert folks to a totally different style of worldview. On the topic of finding a "hook" for getting holistic pregnancy and birth articles into mainstream publications, I couldn't resist a mostly-joking comment about getting Brittany Spears to have a homebirth next time she becomes pregnant, in hopes that giving birth at home might turn into a hip celebrity thing.

A middle aged woman jumped in and reminded us of the contrversy over the birth statue made in Brittany's image. I expressed my appalled reaction that conservative pro-lifers construed the statue of Spears birthing on all fours as sexual. Okay, it was Brittany Spears, but c'mon, we all know nobody, not even Brit feels sexy all the time, and I don't recall feeling especially like a seductress when I gave birth to my son last year -- on all fours. Primal, yes. I enjoyed pushing, yes. Were there some analogies to a sexual experience? Sure. But sexual?

Many of the women surrounding me rushed into to effuse dramatically, "But of course birth is sexual!," commencing a lively discussion of an upcoming movie called, "orgasmic birth," and the rampant discomfort out culture has acknowledging anything so natural and bodily as birth, much less the sexual nature of what is clinically named "labor and delivery."

Sexual is such a funny, fluid word. Where is the line between sensual and sexual? Between primal and horny? Between carnal instinct and sacred passion? Between physical sensation and biological metaphor? Lines. Lines. What lines?

Is birth sexual? By some definitions, perhaps. By other perspectives it might better be described as primally sensual, pointing toward longing, ache, release and bliss in an analogous, but utterly unique brand of passion. And for others, birth might be more like writing, or running a marathon or surviving an earthquake and realizing something beautiful came of it.

But however you look at it, birth is sacred. Giving birth is so very pro-life, as the statue of Brittany was aptly titled. And life is sexual. Is that so hard for pro-life people to accept?