Читать книгу Stand and Deliver!: And other Brilliant Ways to Give Birth - Emma Mahony - Страница 22

That loving sexy vibe is not only confined to the mouth. If I told you that in hospital you are often hooked up to an IV drip (which is almost routine procedure in some places) and then given synthetic oxytocin to get your labour started, you wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised. If you now learn that real oxytocin is produced naturally by your body as you start to make love, and is that warm feeling that rushes through you during a heated embrace, then you might be a little more shocked.

As our own resident High Priestess of Natural Birth, Sheila Kitzinger describes in Birth Your Way:

For many women the very gentle arousal produced by nipple stimulation, carried out by you or someone else, may produce contractions if continued for 20 minutes or so at a time. Stroke the nipples with your fingers, rolling, sucking or licking them [tricky unless you are a dog], or rest a warm face cloth on your breasts, lifting it off when it cools, dipping it in hot water, and pressing it against the nipples again.

Sheila also notes that ‘Masturbation will also produce contractions and, because it is possible to have an orgasm very quickly and to experience multiple orgasm with self-stimulation, it may be a more effective method than intercourse in starting off labour.’ Orgasm in a woman produces waves of contractions in the clitoris, vagina and uterus, and opens the cervix. Ho, ho, ho. Even if it doesn’t work, you can at least have fun trying.