Is giving birth a spiritual experience for most women?

[earllogjam]

I want to know if you somehow change as a person after you give birth.

I ran into a friend of mine who I haven't seen in a long time and she was about 5 months pregnant and she was just beaming. She looked great and happy. We were discussing how wonderfully fascinating it is to have a little human being growing inside of you (actually a part of you) and later popping out of you. She's in her late 30's and just ecstatic that she is pregnant. Honestly she seems like a different person.

I figure there must be some powerful spiritual and emotional stuff that happens to a women during childbirth - especially if she is risking her life to give birth.

How do you change spiritually after having a child? What is the experience like? Do most women need to bear a child to feel whole?

As a gay man I feel I'm out of the loop on most of this and LSPG is one of the few places that I can get any honest insight.

 

[Brillig47]

I can tell you as a straight man who delivered his children at home, even for the father, to be present at a birth is deeply moving. My wife was lucky in that the births were very quick. There are recent reports that if a woman is allowed to give birth naturally, on her hands and knees, at her own pace, it can even be massively orgasmic for her.

 

[greatdickismydrug]

about 5 months pregnant and she was just beaming. She looked great and happy.

You saw her under the influence of a powerful drug called pregnancy HORMONES!!! they are sooooo good until about three days post-partum when they deplete to ZERO. Man that is a hard one to come down off of!!!! and such a cruel thing to do to an exhausted person who went through nine months of Hell in some cases.

But, as a straight woman with kids, I can say that there is no experience in the world to compare. The baby growing inside of you, the birth, bonding, super highs and super lows...it is quite a wild ride! and totally life-changing.

 

[snoozan]

well, i spent my whole pregnancy in unmitigated hell-- those hormones are not kind to all of us.

then i had preeclampsia, 12 hours of labor, and an emergency c-section.

my second pregnancy was even more of a disaster.

spiritual? only if you count demonic.

i love my son, but never, ever again. it's a fallacy that women love being pregnant, and one that makes many women who don't like being pregnant feel inferior.

 

[MistressDD]

It was very moving for me. It did change me as a person, from the day I found out I was pregnant. There was a life growing inside me and forever I was going to be responsible for this little person. The first time I heard the heart beat, WOW, I can't even explain to you the emotions or the thought process. Compared to many others, I had an easy pregnancy. I pushed that little girl out with eagerness, and not only because I was tired of her waking me up in the middle of the night, but because I was ready to meet the little face I had seen so many times.
One of the greatest moments was before I could even feel her moving. I had a little bleeding and went in for an ultrasound, her little body (which I couldn't feel yet) was jumping every couple seconds. The doctor laughed and told me she was having hiccups, lol. It was astounding to see a little person on the screen with hiccups who was living inside me.
She changed my life, from the moment she was a tiny peanut. When I held her in my arms, I knew then, absolutely nothing in my life would ever be the same.
If I could, I would pop babies out like they were nothing just to experience it all over again, but unfortunately, they are expensive and since then I have acquired 2 step sons who I love more than anything also. I plan on having a couple more and I can tell you, they will probably change me too.

 

[whatireallywant]

I think it depends on the woman and 1) whether or not she wants children, and 2) how difficult the pregnancy is.

For me, I just never wanted to experience this, and in fact the whole idea is terrifying to me. But that's just me.

 

[earllogjam]

I can tell you as a straight man who delivered his children at home, even for the father, to be present at a birth is deeply moving. My wife was lucky in that the births were very quick. There are recent reports that if a woman is allowed to give birth naturally, on her hands and knees, at her own pace, it can even be massively orgasmic for her.

Must be one hell of an orgasm. Then of course some orgasms can be spiritual. The kind that make your eyes roll back in your head and say "Oh God!"

You saw her under the influence of a powerful drug called pregnancy HORMONES!!! they are sooooo good until about three days post-partum when they deplete to ZERO. Man that is a hard one to come down off of!!!! and such a cruel thing to do to an exhausted person who went through nine months of Hell in some cases.

I always thought pregnant women are more often than not cranky. Some women must secrete more hormones.

But, as a straight woman with kids, I can say that there is no experience in the world to compare. The baby growing inside of you, the birth, bonding, super highs and super lows...it is quite a wild ride! and totally life-changing.

Would you say you are a different person after you give birth since your life outlook changes in that someone other than you is the most important thing in your life now?

spiritual? only if you count demonic.

i love my son, but never, ever again. it's a fallacy that women love being pregnant, and one that makes many women who don't like being pregnant feel inferior.

The image of Linda Blair giving birth comes to mind.

I always thought it would be nice to have kids because it's a second chance at reliving a better childhood indirectly.

It was very moving for me. It did change me as a person, from the day I found out I was pregnant.

Very touching post, Thanks Mistress. I wonder if women bond instantly to their newborns or if it takes a while.

I think it depends on the woman and 1) whether or not she wants children, and 2) how difficult the pregnancy is.

For me, I just never wanted to experience this, and in fact the whole idea is terrifying to me. But that's just me.

Is women wanting children a biological instinct or urge? I've always wondered why some women have motherly instincts and others don't. I suppose it's a complex question for a pat response. My sister popped out three babies with no problems, short labor, and she just naturally took to motherhood and actually enjoyed it for the most part. I think if they could afford it they would have 3 more kids.

 

[Captain Elephant]

I really thought this topic would finally move my wife to register and respond here since she reads this all the time and she's very outspoken on this topic. Alas, I'm left to be her scribe.

When I got to the spiritual part she roared and said quite the opposite unless God deals in swear words. I was not her husband at the time, and I consider myself fortunate in that circumstance since he appeared to be the main target of her tirades.

Also, pushing a bowling ball through a such a delicate organ seems hardly compensation for the brief pleasure which precipitated the whole ordeal.

While the birthing experience was not exactly enjoyable, the product, her daughter, made all the pain worth it and she would endure it again, except Pris would need to change her attitude about some things and curb her cellphone use. (Pris is her daughter)

 

[snoozan]

Very touching post, Thanks Mistress. I wonder if women bond instantly to their newborns or if it takes a while.

Parenting books and baby magazines and other assorted trash would have you believe this is a universal truth. For many of us, it's not. I loved my child from the start, but it took me months to really warm up to my son and longer to really love him the way I do now. I'm like that with everyone, so it was no different with my boy.

I also want to add that many women experience postpartum depression, postpartum psychosis, and postpartum OCD which greatly effect bonding. These are very stigmatized illnesses that go untreated in many women. Though awareness is growing, it's very hard to convince young mothers that they shouldn't be thrilled both through their pregnancies and after. So they hide it. As women, we aren't allowed to feel ambiguity about being a mother.

I don't mean to be a downer, but I'm reading a lot of the stereotypical responses and want to advocate for those of us who have a more difficult time for whatever reasons.

 

[polesmoker]

It is an almost unspoken rule that all women naturally love being pregnant, and feeling life grow within them. Your reward in the end is your first glimpse of this small being that has occupied your body for months. Women are often condemned for not feeling the euphoric rush of instant love for your baby. I got that super high immediately after the birth of my son. Then I broke down like a little bitch after my doctors, husband, and the nurses took him and left me alone in the birthing room. Half a minute later the RN returned, she only left to get me a warm blanket. She told me many women cry or are almost shellshocked. It is a very emotionally charged experience that is different for every woman. I love my son and I had an easy pregnancy but once is enough for me.

 

[earllogjam]

Also, pushing a bowling ball through a such a delicate organ seems hardly compensation for the brief pleasure which precipitated the whole ordeal.

They say women have a much higher pain threshold than men. I don't think I could even fathom how painful it is. I wonder if it's the reason why women choose to adopt a kid after birthing her first.

I don't mean to be a downer, but I'm reading a lot of the stereotypical responses and want to advocate for those of us who have a more difficult time for whatever reasons.

I wondering if this is the reason why c-sections and pain killers are becoming a common way women birth children in our society.

It is an almost unspoken rule that all women naturally love being pregnant, and feeling life grow within them. Your reward in the end is your first glimpse of this small being that has occupied your body for months. Women are often condemned for not feeling the euphoric rush of instant love for your baby. I got that super high immediately after the birth of my son. Then I broke down like a little bitch after my doctors, husband, and the nurses took him and left me alone in the birthing room. Half a minute later the RN returned, she only left to get me a warm blanket. She told me many women cry or are almost shellshocked. It is a very emotionally charged experience that is different for every woman. I love my son and I had an easy pregnancy but once is enough for me.

Why do they take your baby away into another room after you just gave birth to him? How lucid are you after you give birth anyways?

Since you had such a big high did you suffer a kind of let down or crash of euphoria afterwards?

 

[polesmoker]

They let you see and hold them then they take them away to do tests and properly clean them up. I was given very little meds (one small shot of Demerol), so I was lucid through the birth, then high from euphoria after. When I stopped crying the buzz sort of came back. I would say I went from being high o ecstasy to mild wine buzz.

 

[BobLeeSwagger]

They say women have a much higher pain threshold than men. I don't think I could even fathom how painful it is. I wonder if it's the reason why women choose to adopt a kid after birthing her first.

It goes without saying that nature provides a higher pain threshold under those circumstances. It cracks me up when people say that if guys gave birth, they wouldn't be able to handle it. If it were men that bore children, they would have to be able to handle it or there would be no more new people!