Australian birth photographer and doula, Angela Gallo, recently opened up about why masturbating during childbirth can greatly improve the labor process, sparking intrigue over the approach on social media.
Gallo, who has more than 10,000 Instagram followers and more than 5,000 Facebook fans, wrote in a new blog post on her website that masturbating during childbirth has three major benefits: it helps get the baby out, can help ease pain, and feels good. Gallo also cited a previous statement by Debra Pascali-Bonaro, director of the documentary "Orgasmic Birth: The Best-Kept Secret," about changing one's expectations about what to feel during childbirth. Pascali-Bonaro said the assumption that childbirth has to be a painful, awful experience can create shame in women when they feel pleasure during the experience.
"It's such a culture where some women actually feel shamed that they have pleasure, because the expectation is pain," Pascali-Bonaro said in 2013, according to LiveScience. "We have to change that."
How does it work?
Gallo wrote that oxytocin plays a significant role in childbirth pleasure. Oxytocin is a hormone that causes uterine contractions during childbirth and is also released during sex. Gallo also argued that oxytocin helps get things moving in labor.
"What gets the baby in, gets the baby out!" she wrote. "Nipple, vaginal, clitoral stimulation, kissing, intimacy, affection; these all inspire the flow of our hormonal allies in birth. Experiencing a 'stalled' or lengthy labor? Need a natural pick me up? Touch yourself, mama! It gets the good stuff flowing."
She also cited a study in the Journal of Sex Research that found "a sensation of pleasure evoked by genital stimulation can elevate pain thresholds." This came as no surprise to Gallo, who also mentioned that research has shown sex can lead to migraine relief.
Finally, she wrote that masturbating during childbirth simply feels good for the mother.
"Want to feel more relaxed?" she wrote. "You know that dopey, satisfied, tired feeling you can after an orgasm...that's it right there. You may feel tense, anxious, stressed, unable to rest, mind racing - bring it back to basics with some deliciously luscious clitoral love."
Gallo discovered this childbirth technique while "doing the bulk of [child labor] at home" during her second pregnancy, according to Vice. She was feeling "vulnerable and stressed out," and though she didn't want to have sex with her husband when he asked if that would help, she decided to give self-stimulation a try.
"The second I started using clitoral stimulation, the resting period between contractions was more pleasurable and I could use more force to meet the climax of the contractions," she told Vice.
Try this (only) at home.
As noted by Vice, however, it's important to note that Gallo masturbated in private and not in front of those assisting with her delivery. Because the majority of women give birth at hospitals, it's hard to imagine that this would be feasible for those who want the entire process to take place in hospitals.
Here's what people had to say about Gallo's story on social media:
What other Women are Saying:
Kate Dimpfl, a doula and the founder of Holistic Childbirth, hosted a TEDx talk last year on childbirth pleasure in a speech titled, "We Must Put the Sex Back Into Birth." She shared audio of a woman making noise during sex and an audio of a woman giving birth to highlight how similar both experiences sound.
"How women increase their sense of pleasure through movement, sound, and touch can enhance their orgasm," she said, adding that there are strong parallels between how women behave during childbirth and sex. "Movement, sound, and touch can decrease their sense of pain in childbirth."
In 2013, Elena Skoko, author of "Memoirs of a Singing Birth," explained in an interview with HuffPost Live that she experienced an orgasm while singing during childbirth.
"[An] orgasm can have different phases, and I concentrated, and I felt mostly the intense waves of pleasure and pain," she said. "The more I accepted the sensual part of my body and myself and the experience, I could realize that my body was moving in a sensual way. My voice was behaving as when I was making love."
Pascali-Bonaro also appeared on the HuffPost Live segment to say she enjoyed Skoko's story and would like to broaden the childbirth experience beyond singing.
"We have to set a criteria too," Pascali-Bonaro said. "No one will find a lot of pleasure if they're not in a safe, private environment. They're with people that are going to honor and respect then, and then we can add song, dance, and touching [into the experience]."
H/T Vice
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Masturbation is probably the last thing you'd consider doing when you’re in labor, but one woman swears by it—and she’s encouraging others to give it a shot.
Australian blogger, doula, and birth photographer Angela Gallo detailed her experience riding the O-train during labor in a recent post titled, “Why I touched myself in labor–here’s 3 reasons why you should consider it, too!” In it, Angela talks about how birth “brings out the animal in me” and how she felt “electric, sensual, powerful” while delivering her second child at home.
Angela says she experienced a turning point during this labor when she was about 10 centimeters dilated and her husband asked her if she wanted to have sex. While most women would have unleashed some serious fury, Angela was surprisingly into it.
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“Although I couldn't commit to sex in the moment, he must have read my mind!” she writes. “Clitoral stimulation worked an absolute treat. It shifted my focus to my vagina, to the energy brewing within me. It made me feel connected and made me feel like I had some control over what I was feeling.”
As a result, she says the pain from contractions was “much more manageable” and the time between them was “much more enjoyable.”
Angela says it wasn’t orgasmic in a sexual way, but it was pleasurable. “It was my glorious instinctual pain-relief system coming to life,” she writes. “I am so proud of myself for exploring an avenue so typically shamed.”
Angela goes on to list the reasons why she thinks getting her rocks off during labor was so helpful, including boosts in the love hormone oxytocin and the plain ol’ fact that it feels good. However, there doesn’t seem to be any medical evidence to back up Angela's claim that masturbating offers pain relief during labor. Lauren Streicher, M.D., an associate professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, says the “benefits” of masturbating during labor seem to be totally anecdotal and she’s not aware of any scientific data that supports it.
On the one hand, props to Angela for not only being open to trying something new but for talking about it. On the other, we’re pretty sure most women wouldn’t be down with this, mostly because WHAT THE FUCK.
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Korin Miller is a freelance writer specializing in general wellness, sexual health and relationships, and lifestyle trends, with work appearing in Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Self, Glamour, and more. She has a master’s degree from American University, lives by the beach, and hopes to own a teacup pig and taco truck one day.