5 Tips for an Ecstatic Birth

How is it that some women feel like birth was a horrifically painful experience, and others describe it as ecstatic or even orgasmic?

My mother describes her first birth of my brother in 1956 as ecstatic. She had found a doctor who actually supported "natural" childbirth, and 'allowed' her to labor and birth without drugs or serious interventions. Despite the fact that her husband was not with her, nor any other known support, apparently the doctor and nurses gave her verbal support, and she felt flooded with good feelings and love when my brother was being born.

On the other hand, when I was born, she was in a different hospital, and she got the generic violent birth of the time: drugs against her will, forcep delivery, and separation of me and her for hours until "feeding time". This was a tragic traumatic experience for us both, and it influenced us both for our whole lives.... (and I"m now 54 years old!)