Beyond Pain: Creating Safety and Trust for Ecstatic Birth
Orgasmic Birth
In this episode of The Orgasmic Birth Podcast, Debra Pascali-Bonaro speaks with Joni Edelmann, a birth guide, educator, and former labor and delivery nurse who brings together science, sacredness, and decades of birth experience. Together, they explore how safety, nervous system regulation, privacy, and trust can create the conditions for ecstatic birth in any setting, including the hospital. Joni shares the story of her own births, including how her fifth birth became the first she experienced as truly not painful, but deeply intense, joyful, and transformative. She also reflects on how...
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The Creative Womb: Where birth, pleasure, loss, and healing become one story
Orgasmic Birth
In this episode, Debra Pascali-Bonaro speaks with Josefina Schiller, a mother, singer, doula, translator, and host of Café Comparto Birth Café, about how birth, motherhood, sexuality, loss, and healing are deeply connected. Josefina shares two powerful home birth stories, including a 96-hour labor supported by her community in southern Spain, and reflects on how birth helped her heal ancestral and childhood wounds. Josefina also discusses the role of postpartum as a transformative period, how writing poetry became a creative outlet during mothering, and why she believes oxytocin, pleasure,...
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Pelvic Floor Health - Why Peeing (when you don't want to) after Birth Isn't Normal
Orgasmic Birth
In this bold and deeply informative episode of the Orgasmic Birth Podcast, Debra Pascali-Bonaro sits down with pelvic floor expert Jana Danielson to challenge long-held myths about women’s bodies, postpartum healing, and pleasure. From incontinence to pain during sex to diminished orgasm, many women are told these experiences are “normal” after birth. Jana offers a powerful reframe: they may be common — but they are not normal, and they are not something women have to live with. Together, they explore how pelvic floor health is foundational not only for birth and recovery, but for...
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Maris Young on Reframing Birth into an Orgasmic Experience
Orgasmic Birth
In this heartfelt episode, Debra Pascali-Bonaro welcomes author, mother, and doula Maris Young, whose third birth unfolded in the most surprising and beautiful way — as an orgasmic birth. After a breech birth with her second baby, Maris entered her third pregnancy with a clear intention: to reframe the sensations of birth and discover how pleasurable they could be. Through mindset work, daily practice, and integrating resources from Orgasmic Birth, Maris learned to welcome contractions as manifestations of her body’s divine power. Her story takes us from quiet, candlelit labor at...
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Deepening Intimacy, Partner Support, and Everyday Pleasure with Tarah Alexis
Orgasmic Birth
In this heartfelt episode, Debra Pascali‑Bonaro sits down with birth doula and retired professional women’s football champion, Girl Scout, and chef, Tarah Alexis of Nurturing Embrace Doula Services. Tarah shares how a surprising C‑section birth, witnessing her niece and nephew arrive earthside, and a “divine appointment” with a pregnant stranger on a plane all led her to answer her calling as a doula. Together, Debra and Tarah explore how partners can move far beyond “just rubbing a back” to become active, loving participants in the birth journey. Tarah offers simple, powerful...
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Raising Shame‑Free, Pleasure‑Positive Children Begins at Birth with Dr. Tina Schermer Sellers
Orgasmic Birth
What if preparing for birth could also prepare you for a lifetime of deeper intimacy, healing, and connection—for you and for your children? In this powerful conversation, Debra talks with Dr. Tina Schermer Sellers, internationally recognized sex and gender feminist psychotherapist, bestselling author of Sex, God, and the Conservative Church and Shameless Parenting, and founder of Inanna Rising. Together, they explore how sexual shame shows up in pregnancy, birth, and postpartum, and how embracing pleasure can transform not just your birth, but your whole family’s story. Dr. Tina shares...
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Spicing Up Postpartum with Maranda Bower - Episode 177
Orgasmic Birth
In this episode of Orgasmic Birth: The Podcast, Debra welcomes Maranda Bower, who shares her raw journey through postpartum depression, anxiety, autoimmune challenges, and triumph after four births. Maranda reveals how functional nutrition revolutionized her healing, turning depletion into energy, desire, and joy via her Postpartum Restoration Method—now training providers worldwide. Together, they unpack hormone-balancing foods, self-care rituals, and why postpartum meals foster community, pleasure, and deep emotional release. Key Takeaways: Postpartum depletion is normal—like pinkless...
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A Vibrator as a “Natural Epidural”? Thabata Devecchi on Pleasure, Intuition, and Birth Connection - Ep 176
Orgasmic Birth
In this enlightening episode of Orgasmic Birth: The Podcast, Debra meets Thabata Devecchi, a prenatal educator and founder of Feeling Moms, who shares her powerful home birth story and how pleasure practices helped her turn pain into power. Thabata reveals how self-pleasure, embodied movement, sound, and safety transformed her birth experience. She describes using a vibrator during labor to soften the peak of contractions — calling it her “natural epidural” — and shares how deep preparation, somatic awareness, and tantra shaped her pregnancy, birth, and sense of empowerment. Together,...
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Pain to Bliss: Liya’s Orgasmic Birth and Radical Reproductive Health - Episode 175
Orgasmic Birth
In this powerful episode, Debra Pascali-Bonaro sits down with reproductive health coach and mom of three, Liya Teplitsky, to explore how mindset, nutrition, and intentional pleasure turned birth from excruciating pain into ecstatic orgasmic bliss. Liya shares her three home birth stories—from a long, painful first labor on a yoga mat to a painless second birth and finally an intentional orgasmic birth supported by a vibrator, midwife, and an unshakable belief that birth can be pleasurable. You’ll hear how Liya: -Discovered the concept of home and orgasmic birth from a chance...
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Maternal Health Awareness Day - Holding Ground on Maternal Health: From Survival to Thrival
Orgasmic Birth
What if maternal health goals expanded beyond “alive and healthy”? In honor of Maternal Health Awareness Day, Debra Pascali-Bonaro invites us to imagine a world where pregnancy, birth, and postpartum care are not only safe but also deeply respectful, emotionally whole, and infused with comfort and pleasure. In this moving solo episode, Debra shares her personal connection to the origins of Maternal Health Awareness Day—beginning in her home state of New Jersey—and explores how far the movement has come, and how far we still must go. With maternal mortality rates rising across the U.S....
info_outlineRisk vs Pleasure Series
Ep 165 Description:
“If you are focused on the risk, or you're worried or you're anxious about what's going to go wrong, that is taking up too much of your brain. We need to deal with it and put it into perspective so that we can clear the path to joy and pleasure.” —Dr. Sara Wickham
Pregnancy is supposed to be a time of wonder, but too often the first word that comes up is “risk”. Suddenly, every choice feels like a warning sign, and joy gets pushed into the background. No one talks about how heavy that constant fear can feel—or how much it steals from the confidence and pleasure that should be part of the journey.
After decades as a midwife, researcher, and lecturer, Dr. Sara Wickham saw how the medical model’s focus on risk overshadowed women’s voices and experiences. Now, through her books and the Birth Information Project, she’s breaking down the numbers and challenging the myths, showing women that evidence doesn’t have to be scary—it can be liberating.
In this conversation, Debra and Sara unpack how risk talk shapes pregnancy, why many “warnings” don’t match the actual evidence, and how women can reclaim joy, confidence, and even pleasure in birth—including insights from her new book Plus Size Pregnancy. Expect tools, clarity, and a refreshing reminder that pregnancy isn’t just about minimizing danger—it’s about living the experience fully.
Connect with Sara:
Dr. Sara Wickham, PhD, MA, PGCert, BA(Hons) is a bestselling author, speaker, and researcher who works independently. Sara is the Director of the Birth Information Project. Sara’s career has been varied and includes three decades of experience as a midwife, lecturer, and researcher.
She is the author/editor of eighteen books, has edited three midwifery journals, and lectured in more than thirty countries. Sara provides consultancy services for midwifery and health-related organisations around the world. She is based in south-west England.
Website: https://www.sarawickham.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drsarawickham
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/saramidwife
Connect with Debra!
Website: https://www.orgasmicbirth.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/orgasmicbirth
X: https://twitter.com/OrgasmicBirth
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/OrgasmicBirth1
Tik Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@orgasmicbirth
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debra-pascali-bonaro-1093471
Episode Highlights:
03:13 The Cultural Obsession with Risk
06:31 The Impact of Risk on Women’s Experiences
09:14 Understanding Evidence Around Risk
16:38 Induction of Labor and Its Implications
27:18 Plus Size Pregnancy and Evidence Discrepancies
36:15 The Importance of Reframing Risk
Resources:
💗 Fin Pleasure VIBE, a wearable finger vibrator that can be used in pregnancy, labor, birth, and postpartum for pleasure, oxytocin enhancement, pain reduction, and healing: https://www.orgasmicbirth.com/fin-pleasurevibe/
💗 Sponsorship
Partner with us to share your offerings with our audience that cherishes authenticity, connection, and family well-being. To learn more about sponsorship opportunities, visit www.orgasmicbirth.com or email me at: debra@orgasmicbirth.com
💗 Gift
If you enjoyed this episode and would like to learn more about pleasure in birth, parenting, and birth work, visit www.orgasmicbirth.com/more for my free gifts