You often hear about all the awesome things a doula did while supporting her clients; Doulas who “never left my side”, Doulas who “gave a great massage”, Doulas who “went to the ends of the earth to get me pizza at 1 AM after having my baby.”

I was the doula who “did a plank while providing counter pressure”. As my client neared transition, she began to desperately call out instructions – “harder, more,” and “don’t stop” – as her baby moved down deeper into her birth canal and closer to her arms. She loved the way the counter pressure felt, grounding her while simultaneously helping to open her pelvis during the contraction. And when I tagged her partner in on the action, two things happened.

1. mom became heightenly aware of her partner and her particular words which she later described as “stimulating”

and

2. she embraced it in surrender. She was safe in the closeness and revelry of her husband. And THIS spiked her labor into high gear, but with sensations, she later explained to be “euphoric.”

When processing her birth experience, she shared, “I had read about Orgasmic birth, but never did I think an O birth was real! Looking back, you’d think I would have been embarrassed, but honestly, I am SO thankful! It was wildly intense but in such a positive way. It wasn’t sexual, just euphoric and blissful.”

Oxytocin is such a powerful hormone. It is the hormone responsible for contractions during labor and the let down of breast milk postnatally. It’s also often referred to as “the hormone of love” or “the bonding hormone” following a baby’s birth. For this family, the intimate proximity heart to heart power-boosted this love and bonding experience.

“It was just me, my husband, and our child… We owned that moment and that moment owned us. Fully connected, fully bonded, one hundred percent each others’.”