Pregnant women have long captured our hearts and imaginations. After all, they are the life-givers, celebrated by romantic poets in almost every culture.

Before childbirth became a C-section modern-day operation scheduled for the convenience of time-pressed moms and doctors, life-giving was often celebrated as a spiritual event, filled with rituals and rich symbolism.

Countries around the world aren’t unified in their perspective of pregnancy and the birth experience. In America, the focus of childbirth has long been the baby, and not so much the mother’s wellbeing.

But in nations like Peru, Italy, Brazil and France, childbirth is a more unified experience, with dad playing an increasingly important role, too. These influences have seeped into America’s childbearing culture, causing us to explore alternative relationships with pregnant women and motherhood.

Sexy Pregnancy

Italian midwife Carla Joly reminds us “women during childbirth are in a threshold between visible and invisible worlds.” The sensuality of childbirth “is found in pagan rituals and also in Tantra, in which sexuality is an expression of spiritual opening.”

The medicalization of child birth leaves no room for the ‘voodo science’ of Tantra in America’s delivery rooms. With the rising influence of India, it seems natural that these ancient traditions will gain influence and prestige yet again. The sooner the better from our perspective.

Not only is America’s maternal health rate abnormally high for a Western nation, but extensive studies in Europe are disproving the assertions that midwife deliveries are fundamentally more dangerous to baby and mother.

Since Demi Moore rocked the world with her Vanity Fair cover photo of her very round, pregnant belly and torso, more celebrity moms are influencing our visions of pregnancy. Yes, models and actresses tend to be gorgeously pregnant, with personal trainers and nutritionists a flick of the finger away of their every need.

Any pregnant woman battling morning sickness isn’t keen to read the odds that her libido will skyrocket in the second trimester. Finding herself awash in hormones and a changing body, reading that she has an adored body in the popular culture can be TMI and culturally decadent.

The often undeniable reality is that pregnant women can be very sexy.

If the stiletto fits, wear it ladies. Besides swollen ankles — which are inevitable — culture has lots to do with just how sensual a woman feels about motherhood.

Claudia Schiffer by Karl Lagerfeld, German Vogue May 2010Days before she delivered a baby girl named Cosima Violet Vaughn Drummond on May 14, photos of a very pregnant Claudia Schiffer, photographed by Karl Lagerfeld for German Vogue, showered the Internet and popular press with their sensuality and beauty.

Claudia was ‘hot’ and frankly tantalizing in her dress and attitude for the Karl Lagerfeld photos. Wanting to move beyond photo worship, we decided to probe the topic of motherhood and sensuality with three well-informed women.

Italian midwife Carly Joly responded to the provocative aspect of Claudia’s photos, saying:

“I was impressed very positively. The images are not blasphemous, but on the contrary, an expression of great liberation. I think they like a deep breath that allows (a woman) to live at the same time in sexual and spiritual dimensions. They also represent both the introspective and dreamy, joyful side of pregnancy. “

Always concerned about the impact of celebrity culture on ‘real women’, Examiner Modern Love writer Tinamarie Bernard Eshel also weighed in:

“There is no doubt that pregnancy is sexy, a time in a woman’s life when her hormones are supercharged, and her sensuality is out there for everyone to admire. I think the Claudia pictures magnificently highlight this; great photography aside, her belly and glowing skin take center stage. My hope is that when women see these images, they don’t compare themselves to her and find something wanting. I hope they run to their nearest lingerie store for pregnant women, buy themselves something deliciously sexy, and revel in their own unique beauty, be it a size 2 or a size 12.”

I recently had the pleasure of sharing intimate girl stories over espresso with Elizabeth Bard, an American married woman, new mom, and successful book author, living in Paris for 10 years.

Elizabeth’s response to the Claudia Schiffer photos revealed not only the details of her French pregnancy, but also her government-sponsored sessions of post-pregnancy “vaginal reeducation”.

Claudia Schiffer by Karl Lagerfeld for Vogue Germany, May 2010Listening to Bard’s French pregnancy stories gave me yet another basis for understanding why French women believe they peak at 35-45, when American women say 28. (The same holds for Italian and Brazilian women.) PLEASE tell me that American women don’t believe they peak with motherhood, and it’s all downhill after that.

Elizabeth Bard writes:

When I arrived in France I marveled at the pregnant women – adorable in their skinny jeans with just a basketball under their shirt. I had a warm experience being pregnant in Paris.

The French work really hard to find a balance between becoming a mother and remaining an independent, sexy, feminine woman. The doctors and midwives are adamant that you watch your weight (one kilo a month — 2.2 pounds – is what they recommend), and the hospital stay itself is designed to make sure you and your partner go home with a certain number of skills, so you don’t feel quite as overwhelmed.

Elizabeth was in the hospital for SIX DAYS (her caps), all free and with a perfectly normal birth.

Six to eight weeks out of the hospital in France, women begin 10 sessions — also paid by the national health service — of “vaginal reeducation”. What we would call Kegel exercises promote both post-pregnancy urinary control, and “of course, to get you back on the horse in terms of sex”, writes Elizabeth, with a cryptic Mona Lisa smile on her face. She summarizes her birthing in France experience:

I would say the French have pregnancy down to a science, but it’s more accurate to say they have it down to an art. The process is less medicalized, more feminine. All the doctors kept saying, “Vous etes pas malade, Madame – You’re not sick, you’re having a baby. I never felt more gorgeous.

We know now that Claudia Schiffer was photographed recently pregnant last fall for Tank magazine. In an interview with the London Times that coincided with the fashion editorial, Claudia Schiffer explained: “I like myself so much better today.”

Schiffer radiates womanliness in the Tank photos — no retouching and Claudia naked and just a little pregnant at 39.

America is slow to talk about the sensuality of motherhood in a way the French, Italians and Brazilians are not. Sensuality News is convinced that their national cultures contribute to this more sexually overt embrace of motherhood and womanly wellbeing.

While childbirth and family always represent major changes in a woman’s life, other cultures work more overtly to insure a woman that she is even more talented, more competent, more briliant and just more of everything. Mom has not lost ‘herself’ to motherhood.

Having birthed many babies, Carla Joly isn’t reluctant to state her views: on sexy motherhood:

“I think pregnancy, childbirth and lactation are the ultimate expressions of female sexuality. As a midwife, I’ve seen women have an orgasm during childbirth with my own eyes. The women describe this kind of orgasm as an experience that also has a spiritual side, one accommodates the child in its spiritual dimension.”

I want Carla to have the last word on maternal sensuality, but my instincts tell me that some American eyeballs might be raised over her comments on orgasms during childbirth.

In potentially controversial subjects like this one, I go to the religiously-approved, Conservative FOXSexpert Yvonne Fubright who calls Carla’s observations about orgasm during delivery “the best kept secret” of childbirth.

No matter how you look at it, birth is a sexual experience. That’s going to make many of you cringe, but biologically it makes sense. The pleasures of birth allow for better mother-infant bonding. Far from perverse, orgasmic pleasures are a continuation of the act of conception itself. They’re in the best interest of the baby, and an ideal starting point for healthy family relationships.

So there you have it. FOX News closes out this conversation on the very real experiences of sexy pregnancy. We’re intrigued with this subject at Sensuality News and will weigh in again on the topic. Consider it a new adventure. Anne

Bios and links to our experts:

Carla Joly

Carla Joly Arte Ostetrica

Elizabeth Bard

Lunch in Paris Blog

Elizabeth’s book “Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes”