Lith’s Intimate Birth

We held one another in our candle-lit lounge room and swayed back and forth, our hips danced together. My face buried into his body during the labour rushes. When the rushes subsided we stood together, our foreheads touching, we embraced like we were the only two people in the world.

Earlier in the labour when I wanted to rest lying down made my body tensed. It was uncomfortable and painful, unless my baby's father laid by my side, then I could let go. Whenever he touched me my discomfort eased, he was better than any heat pack.

The line between pleasure and pain is very fine indeed. I sang my birth song, a low moan, and he sang with me. I was surprised by how much birth sounded like sex! But it made sense. Conception happens by making love and birth is part of that lovemaking continuum.

When, after three long days and nights, I scooped my baby up out of the water, my partner wept tears of joy, and my friend's breasts burst forth with milk.

That's what I remember most - not the posterior labour back pain, not the 58 hours of dilation - the intimacy.

 Within hours we were planning our next intimate birth