Hot tubs, candles, music and kisses set the mood – not fluorescent lights, hospital gowns and anesthesia.

The Kodiak Birth Network wants to present an alternative to the hospital childbirth most American women experience. At the Little School of Dance on Saturday, the group provided some vivid examples of a natural birth alternative through a screening of the documentary “Orgasmic Birth: The Best Kept Secret.”

The orgasmic part comes from the belief that with proper preparation giving birth can be ecstatic, or even orgasmic. The film followed the birthing experiences of about a dozen women, some in hospitals, but most in their own homes or at special natural birth clinics called birth houses.

The Kodiak Birth Network hopes to bring a birth house as well as highly trained midwives to Kodiak.

“Ten to 15 percent of women really need hospital care when giving birth,” said Kodiak Birth Network leader Patty Delate. “For the rest of the women, we’re robbing them of a wonderful, transformative experience.”

For one woman in the film, relaxation techniques worked so well that giving birth was truly orgasmic. But even the women who worked through difficult labors, described the challenge of overcoming pain as a valuable experience — and an important option.

Delate said there are few alternatives to the Maternity Clinic at Providence Kodiak Island Medical Center (PKIMC). Kodiak lacks access to certified nurse midwives (midwives with a nursing degree) as well as certified professional midwives.

Kodiak does have access to midwives with non-nursing backgrounds, but without nurses training, they have fewer options to provide help if a natural birth becomes a medical emergency.

Besides arguing for the advantages of natural birth, the film also said American obstetricians do too many Cesarean sections. Saltonstall cited concern about high C-section rates in Kodiak as the main reason for creating the Kodiak Birth Network.

“Orgasmic Birth” also criticized the (over)use of epidermal pain relief and synthetic forms of oxytocin hormone (brand name Pitocin).

Despite the film’s criticism of medical birth procedures, the two-dozen members of the Kodiak audience on Saturday were careful to not step on the toes of Kodiak’s doctors.

“The question is: How do we bring midwives here without alienating the medical community?” Delate said.

Dr. Laura Walters, a family practice physician at the Kodiak Island Medical Association was supportive of the organization’s goals and said they were not necessarily a departure from mainstream medicine.

“People should be able to get the experience that they want out of birth. I’m just there if something goes wrong,” she said.

Laura Hansen, a member of the audience, said there is some evidence PKIMC is incorporating some of the ideals of natural birth.

“To be fair, our medical system in Kodiak incorporates a lot of the things they had in the film. When I gave birth at the hospital they had a water tub and yoga balls in the room,” she said.

The group briefly brainstormed advocating for a birth center within the walls of PKIMC when the existing Long-term Care Facility finds a new home.

“Getting a birth center in Kodiak would really be a space issue more than anything else. Perhaps you can get in line for the space left by the care center when it moves out,” Dr. Walters said.

The Kodiak Birth Network will hold its next monthly meeting on Nov. 17. For more information e-mail kodiakbirthnetwork@gmail.com.

Mirror writer Sam Friedman can be reached via e-mail at sfriedman@kodiakdailymirror.com.