Birth & Sex: The Power and the Passion

by Sheila Kitzinger

Birth and sex are often talked about as if they were contrasting experiences. In fact, they each involve the same rush of hormones in an action drama in which mind and body work in harmony. When a woman is free to follow her instincts and give birth naturally, waves of endorphins surge in the bloodstream with the same energy as in ecstatic lovemaking. Birth and sex mingle to become one in the thrilling, sweet, intense and overwhelming experience of creation.
Yet in the Western high-tech birth culture the environment often inhibits the spontaneity of birth, resulting in pain and distress. Pregnancy and birth are de-sexed and treated as medical conditions. Women are turned into objects on which doctors act.
In this compelling and controversial new book Sheila Kitzinger explores the complexity and depth of female sexuality during pregnancy, birth, and after the baby comes. She shows what can be done to create an environment in which a woman is able to trust her instincts and be confident in her body. By rediscovering the power and passion in our bodies, we can reclaim the spontaneity and sexual ecstasy of childbirth.

192 pages, Paperback

First published October 16, 2012

About the author

Sheila Kitzinger M.B.E, M.Litt is a social anthropologist of birth and author of 24 books published internationally, most on the emotional journey through this major life experience. At Oxford in the 50s she discovered that the social anthropology of that time was almost entirely about men. She decided she would do research to discover what was important in women's lives, and focused on pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding.
Her five children were all born at home. She lectures widely in different countries and has learned from mothers and midwives in the USA and Canada, the Caribbean, Eastern and Western Europe, Israel, Australia and New Zealand, Latin America, South Africa and Japan, and from women in prison and those who have had a traumatic birth experience.

Reviews

[Cristina Lux · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un relato alternativo pero al mismo tiempo fundamental sobre los partos.

El libro es una crítica a la actual visión médica del nacimiento. Explica lo que sucede hormonalmente en un parto y los paralelos que pueden hacerse con la sexualidad, ya que las mismas hormonas están involucradas.

Recuperar el conocimiento instintivo de los partos y reclamar la intimidad perdida, tan necesaria en ese proceso, es el activismo de la autora.

No le pongo 5 estrellas porque aunque el libro está bien referenciado no sólo con bibliografía y testimonios, a veces parece una visión agotadora y parcial, que sólo recoge las críticas de la deshumanización del parto que trajo la medicina moderna y no por ejemplo la reducción dramática de las tasas de mortalidad. Se entiende la fundamentada posición de la autora, pero para lectoras que se educan por primera vez sobre estos temas, puede experimentarse un shock demasiado grande, tanto por un sabor propagandístico, como por el hecho de que las posibilidades de nuestras realidades difieren trementamente de las propuestas del libro. Si no vives en una gran ciudad o cerca de un hospital moderno, puedes olvidarte de tener el respeto y los accesos básicos que este libro propone.

De todas maneras lo recomiendo ya que un cambio sistémico es urgente. Es sólo que cuando una ya está embarazada el activismo no suele ser una prioridad.

[Jacqueline · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had forgotten how much I love this author and how her perspective as a sexual being, mother, grandmother, social anthropologist, historian and all around wise woman really resonates with me. She gets me and I get her... I bought this book a while bak (2019...). it is definitely a missing piece in the puzzle and a nod to a woman's way of knowing and ancestral practices for women.

[Gloria · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's fantastic.