Is giving birth really magical?

I think it’s a personal experience. I would never expect my husband to feel the same way about MY pregnancy or delivery. As far as the word “magical”, I can see why some people would use it to describe birth. I don’t know if you have ever experienced a birth live. (Not a video) It is pretty amazing that the body goes through such a transformation and can walk away virtually unharmed. A better phrase in my mind would be that the human body is magical. Bu,t for a mother and her new child the experience is magical, there is no way to fully explain it, it’s an experience.

not just super happy? It has to be magical?

Why do people describe beauty as breath taking? Do you actually loose your breath? If some one is drop dead gorgeous do you really drop dead?

It’s not magic, it’s nature. Nature is awesome, but it is not magic, or miraculous for that matter.

I have never used the word Magical to describe my childbirth experience. Nor have I ever heard anyone else use that term. It’s not. As said above, it’s nature. Now the way I got pregnant….naaa…that wasn’t magical either.

Magic…
1. The exercise of sleight of hand or conjuring for entertainment.
2. Possessing distinctive qualities that produce unaccountable or baffling effects.

If you are referring to definition #1 no child birth is not magic, however if you are referring to #2 I would say yes it is.

The product is neither unaccountable or baffling; you know exactly what is going to happen. And I wouldn’t call it distinctive when pretty much 1/2 of the population of the world can do it.

It was the most beautiful, life changing moment in my life. My husband and I bonded even more with each other and loved each other even more as we gave birth to our daughter. It was almost fifteen years ago, and I still remember the most minute details. I was possessed with a feeling of complete love, excitement and pure joy! I was so proud and happy to finally meet her. Her birth changed me in so many ways for the better. Getting to be her Mom has made me a better person. I have said it before, but I must be the most lucky mom and wife in the world to have my husband and daughter in my life.

@tinyfaery have you given birth? I was baffled that my body could do what it did; I am still amazed that the human body is capable of doing what it does. Did I know what was going to happen? Yes, but it is different when it happens to you. And yes it is distinctive; do you think that each and every birthing experience is exactly the same? Well they aren’t. I don’t see what the fuss is about mothers using the word magical to describe something that is so special for them. Would you feel better if they said words can’t describe it rather that trying to relate it to something that has a definition?

It’s not literally magical, of course, and there is no need to make it mystical in order to experience the wonder of it. There is wonder in every natural process from the eruption of a volcano and the growth of plants that are 300 feet tall to the interaction of beneficial bacteria in the gut. You can read up on every aspect of childbirth (I did) and not be baffled by any of it, and yet it is still a wonder.

Thank goodness it is anything but unique, however. Assisting childbirth and in fact every facet of medical science depends on the essential premise that we are not unique.

Yet there is a reason why all cultures and religions treat birth and birthgiving as a major event and attach profound significance and all sorts of mystical properties to it. This is not only an emotional reaction (which can have something in common with one’s presumed response to magic) but a way of acknowledging the whole process of creation of life and perpetuation of humankind (and of all other species of living thing). And it both becomes a symbol and generates symbols that have a place—maybe even a central place—in cosmologies of every kind, whether you see a creator as generating life from a word or the universe as giving birth to the stars through a Big Bang.

Remember that not every definition of magic or creation requires that the transformation be instantaneous. It could take nine months, or it could take all of time and time out of time.

It is a miracle especially when you think of a small vigina hole that streatches so big till you are able to fit a big head out from it

I gave birth to twins three months prematurly nearly thirty years ago when neo natal medicine was in it’s infancy.
My experience was scary, horrifying, guilt ridden, stressful, but above all….it was magical. Today my adult sons are happy and healthy.

It sounds ridiculous and even irritating, but until you have experienced it for yourself, noone will ever be able to describe it sufficiently to you….for me it was magical.

It was the culimination of trying to conceive, navigating the ups and downs of pregnancy, the stress of worrying about the health of the baby, 18 hours of labor and then….Oh.My.God. They hand you this thing that you helped make and carried inside you and felt move and….yes. It was magical.

no doubt those hormones help :)

@basp: glad to hear that both your sons are well. Those earliest days of their tiny lives must have taken years off of yours.
My pregnancies and birth experiences were among the happiest moments of my life. I will never forget those moments.
Magical? Not literally. Miraculous? It seemed so to me. Certainly wondrous.

They were amazing, life changing and moments that I truly will never be able to forget. Both of mine were c-sections. Both of my children had specialists standing by, because they had complications. Both of my children, were supposed to die. My daughter wasn’t breathing when she was born. That was the longest 3 minutes of my life. Then that sound, oh my God, was it amazing. My son, had heart complications, but we were told there would be lung complications, as well. That little boy, came screaming. My husband and I, at the same time, said, “Lungs are fine!” and, after being checked, there were fine. He’s five, she’s 14 and both are wonderful.

The pain? There was pressure, discomfort and the recovery was a pain in the rear. I don’t think you (or at least I) factor that in, when you are really looking back. Maybe I do, to a point, only to say that I would do it again, in a heart beat.

Magical, in the strictest sense of the word? No. A miracle, absolutely. Instant love, overwhelming love.

Holding that baby, welcoming it to the world, a once in a lifetime moment, that I will always cherish.

Pregnancy, for me, did indeed ‘suck ass’. Birth, however, was awe inspiring. All 3 times.

@augustlan…yeah, I never had that “glow” either…unless you count the green glow from being sick to my stomach, too much.

@augustian @ cak. I barfed my way through the first trimester w/ both of my kids. (I never knew you could vomit spontaneously….)
Somehow that prize at the end made it all worth it…
:)

LOL…morning sickness did had a demension to my pregnancy too. I was sick from the time I conceived to the time my water broke.

ugh. basp. I don’t know if I would have made it! LOL.