Being the curious teenager I was, I came across a show called Taboo. One particular episode was about orgasmic birth.
Orgasmic?! You might ask, How in God’s name is that even fathomable—never mind possible?
Well, it turns out, it is possible. We’ve been misled—by Hollywood and beyond. But the roots of this misinformation go deeper than entertainment. The indoctrination of fear and pain surrounding childbirth began long before Hollywood glamorized suffering.
Historically speaking, fear of childbirth began taking hold in the late 18th to early 19th century. That’s not very long ago in the grand scheme of things. Out of millennia of human history, it’s only in the last couple of centuries that women began to associate childbirth so strongly with danger and excruciating pain. And that—that shift—is the key to understanding what’s been lost.
So let’s start there. Let’s first explore when and why the fear of pain and death during childbirth began to take root in the collective consciousness. Then, in a future post, we’ll unpack the question of why childbirth is perceived as inherently painful.
Before the 18th century, birth was women’s work. Now, don’t get me wrong—I’m not trying to be misandrist about men being involved in the birth process. I wholeheartedly believe in the value of a supportive partner during birth. But I digress.
Midwives were women who supported other women through pregnancy and childbirth. They were, and still are, experts in pregnancy and birth. Here’s a striking comparison: in Canada, a family doctor typically completes 4 years of undergraduate study and 4 years of medical school to become a general practitioner (GP). According to canadianmidwives.org, a midwife completes a 4-year bachelor’s degree in midwifery.
That’s half the time a GP spends studying everything from infections to minor surgeries—but midwives focus entirely on pregnancy and natural birth. In my opinion, most OB-GYNs are essentially GPs with a license to perform cesareans and manage complications—many of which, quite frankly, are caused by the interventions of modern medical practice itself.
I’ll elaborate…
The Rise of Male Physicians in Obstetrics
It wasn’t always like this. Birth wasn’t something you scheduled at a sterile institution with a stranger in scrubs. For most of human history, women birthed in their homes, surrounded by other women. But somewhere in the 18th and 19th centuries, men started stepping into birth spaces—not as supportive fathers, but as doctors. And not just any doctors, but ones trained in a very different kind of medicine called Allopathy. The study of medicine using petroleum-based substances that could be patented $$$. Birth was no longer seen as a natural event—it became a medical condition to be “managed,” not to mention charged for. Once birth moved from the home to the hospital, the power slowly began to shift.
The Autopsy-Birth Tragedy (Semmelweis + Puerperal Fever)
Here’s where it gets dark. In some hospitals—especially teaching hospitals—young doctors would perform autopsies on dead bodies in the morning, then go straight to the maternity ward to deliver babies. No gloves. No handwashing. No concept of bacteria. The result? Women were dying—by the dozens—of what was called “childbed fever.” One brilliant doctor, Ignaz Semmelweis, figured out that washing hands with chlorinated lime drastically reduced deaths. You’d think that would be the breakthrough moment. But nope. He was mocked, dismissed, and eventually institutionalized. It’s hard to even wrap your head around, but that denial of reality cost lives, and it wasn’t even that long ago.
Demonization and Devaluation of Midwives
At the same time doctors were gaining prestige, midwives were being pushed out. And I don’t mean politely—there was real smearing of women who had been attending births for generations. Midwives were portrayed as dirty, untrained, or even superstitious. In some places, they were literally accused of witchcraft. Imagine that: women who helped other women bring life into the world were cast as dangerous. That shift didn’t just change where women gave birth. It changed who we trusted with our bodies—and who we were told not to trust. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t each other.
Industrialization of Birth
Once hospitals took over, birth started to look more like an assembly line than a rite of passage. Women were shaved, strapped down, and told not to make noise. Twilight sleep (a mix of morphine and scopolamine) became common in the early 1900s—drugging women until they forgot they even gave birth. Then came forceps, routine episiotomies, and eventually, a rising C-section rate that should raise eyebrows. I’m not saying hospitals don’t save lives in emergencies—they do. But when standard practice becomes intervention, and women aren’t even given all their options, we’ve gone from support to control. And that’s where the problem lies.
I’ll give you an example most women are familiar with: induction.
I hear women say all the time, “Oh, my doctor wants to induce me before he goes on holiday.” Well—here’s a reality check, and a fact you can take to the bank: Pitocin, the synthetic version of oxytocin used to start labor, is administered through an IV. Sounds simple, but here’s the problem…
While it’s typically started at a low dose and gradually increased until contractions are about four minutes apart (what they define as active labor), Pitocin often initiates labor before the mother’s body is truly ready. And that throws off the entire rhythm nature intended.
The contractions come on too hard, too fast, which triggers the mother’s sympathetic nervous system—aka fight or flight mode. Her body hasn’t had the chance to naturally build up endorphins to manage the intensity of those contractions. Meanwhile, that same sudden intensity can stress the baby out. And the second that baby shows signs of distress? BOOM. She’s under the knife.
Still with me? Because here’s part two (and no, the bad news isn’t over yet):
Pitocin is synthetic. It overrides your body’s natural oxytocin and binds only to the oxytocin receptors in the uterus. But real oxytocin, the love hormone, does so much more—it crosses the blood-brain barrier. That means it plays a huge role in the emotional and chemical bonding between you and your baby. It’s what makes you feel euphoric. In love. Connected.
When you’re induced with Pitocin, your body is robbed of the chance to produce and flood itself with that real oxytocin. If you had trouble bonding with your baby after a Pitocin-induced birth, you weren’t crazy. You were chemically shortchanged.
Fear Conditioning and Cultural Shifts
Fast forward to now. We grow up watching dramatic birth scenes where a woman’s water breaks in the grocery store, she screams bloody murder in the back of a taxi, and barely survives the ordeal. That’s what we’re shown—and what we expect. Fear is spoon-fed to us in sex-ed classes, in family birth horror stories, and in movies where birth looks like a near-death experience. It’s no wonder women are scared before they even see two pink lines. We’re conditioned to believe pain is inevitable, and that we need rescuing. But what if that’s just a story we’ve been sold?
Reclaiming Birth Sovereignty
That story didn’t sit right with me—not even at 19. I didn’t know everything, but I knew enough to question what I was being told. And I wasn’t alone. The more I dug, the more I realized birth didn’t have to look the way everyone said it did. I started reading, learning, watching videos of calm, powerful births—and suddenly, that tiny voice inside me saying, “There must be another way” got a whole lot louder. Choosing not to give birth in a hospital wasn’t reckless—it was intentional. It was me saying, “My body isn’t broken, and I don’t need to be saved.” And that choice changed my life.
I didn’t just read about this. I lived it. And when I became pregnant at 19, I knew I couldn’t walk into that system blindly. What happened next changed everything. Keep an eye out for my next post
Resources That Helped Me Reclaim Birth
Conversations With a Midwife
Honestly, nothing helped me more than real, grounded talks with a midwife who saw me—my fears, my questions, my heart. If you can, find a midwife you resonate with. Their wisdom runs deep, and it’s a different kind of care.
If you’re feeling that pull to learn more—to remember what your body already knows—these are a few resources that really opened my eyes and helped me trust in natural birth:Hypnobirthing Home Study Course Manual by Kathryn Clark
This manual was a game changer for me. It breaks down the physiology of birth in a way that just makes sense—and empowers you to work with your body instead of against it. If you’ve never heard of hypnobirthing, this is a beautiful place to start.
The Business of Being Born (Documentary)
This documentary pulled the curtain back on the modern maternity system. It made me realize just how much of what we think is “normal” in birth is actually about profit, policy, and control—not empowerment or health.
👉 Watch the trailer:
Much love in the One Infinite Creator
