Understanding how sexual pleasure can ease labor pain and enhance birth is a huge gap for both providers and expected parents.
In this episode, Dr. Mary Jo Podgurski discusses the importance of good sex education and how it can help reduce barriers to pleasure for both survivors of sexual assault and new parents who are looking to have a positive postpartum experience. If you're interested in learning more about how pleasure can help make childbirth easier and happier for everyone involved, I highly recommend listening to this episode! Dr. Mary Jo Podgurski is an RN, educator, counselor, author, and speaker of more than 900 local, national, and international workshops/trainings. She is a past Lamaze International president and has been a childbirth educator since the 1970s. She is also an American Association of Sexuality educators, counselors, and therapists certified as a sexuality educator and sexuality counselor.

In this episode:

The Best-Kept Secret! How you could bring in your sexuality and sexual pleasure to prepare for birth Self-pleasure as a way to ease childbirth pain and stress There are many other ways to be orgasmic that don't involve inserting something into a vagina Key Takeaways:

Touch is important for both labor and birth, and can be helpful in reducing pain Giving permission for someone to let their body have an orgasm is powerful and can be done in words Talking with your provider about incorporating self-pleasure into your birth plan is crucial It's important to communicate with your partner about what you need in order to have a positive postpartum experience There are many other ways to be orgasmic. Remember that sexuality and sexual expression are not just about penetration. Tweetable Quotes:

“Your body is amazing and it's yours. And you should have consent for anything that involved it.” - Dr. Mary Jo Podgurski “Be open with your babies. Let them become self-aware and figure out how to incorporate their sexual health into their growing self-worth." - Dr. Mary Jo Podgurski