Chapter 5 - Physiology of Sex & Birth
One of the most enlightening ways I have found to communicate the body’s physiological design and needs in labor and birth is to call attention to the parallels between birth and sex. A large reason why they have many physiological similarities is that birth and sex are both controlled by the same part of the brain.
The brain stem, also sometimes called the primitive or reptilian brain, governs basic functions, drives, and instincts such as heart rate, sleeping, breathing, digestion, balance, self-preservation, reproduction, and birth. It also distinguishes between familiar and unfamiliar, and detects threats. Notice that all these functions, drives, and instincts come naturally without you having to think them through, or consciously make them happen. You don’t have to learn to sleep. Sexual attraction doesn’t have to be taught. Birth too, just like breathing or sex, is something your body instinctively, by default, knows how to do!
What also ties birth and sex together is that neither is ever just about what happens physically, despite that the majority of what society portrays and emphasizes about either birth or sex is all in the physical realm. Sex is magnified to be all about the physical pleasure of the moment, with no regard to its emotional, mental, or spiritual effects. Birth is magnified to be all about physical pain and what might go wrong physically, with no regard to how the physical might be affected by the mother’s state of mind, emotions, or peace, and vice versa. The so called dangers of birth are highlighted at every turn, while almost anything seems to pass as safe sex, as long as you’re using contraceptives and protection against disease.
The truth is, what really makes birth either safe or dangerous is the same thing that makes sex either safe or dangerous.
