Reply #33: I enjoyed the birth of my second child immensely. I had trained myself all through my pregnancy to

[scarletwoman]

experience labor as "intensity" and "rushes" rather than pain. I entered an altered state of consciousness in which my prevailing sensory perception was that of ecstacy.

In fact, when the midwives instructed me to push the baby out, I said, "Is it over already?" (It had been eight hours from when my water broke to when my son was born)

I wouldn't characterize the actual descent of the baby through the birth canal as "orgasmic", however. It was more of a coming down to earth from the blissful state I had been in throughout labor. My consciousness was way beyond my physical body by that time -- I was seeing rainbow auras everywhere and glowing full-body halos around my midwives.

And, no, there were no drugs of any kind involved. This was a totally natural home birth.

sw