Birth Pleasure Experiences and Perceptions

In Chapter 2, I present the main findings of my qualitative work in The Birth Pleasure Study , which revealed that both pleasure and pain are multidimensional and integral aspects of birth experiences, can co-arise, and are not mutually exclusive. This chapter covers the kinds of pleasure experienced during childbirth by type, including emotional, mental, spiritual, physical, and sexual pleasure, and how these experiences of pleasure had been perceived by the study participants. To help my readers understand these varied expressions of pleasure, I developed a Typology of Birth Pleasure, which will help to frame the reader’s thinking going forward into the rest of this text. Factors such as biomedicalization, birth setting, maternal age, and culturally determined childbirth beliefs draw together to reveal how the body meets belief within the birth space and of the pleasure and power of reclaiming bodily sovereignty and fully actualizing reproductive justice.