I probably should have thought about that connection to eroticism.

But I didn't. Maybe because I'm a woman myself, it doesn't track as erotic to me, it does track as sensual. But, it's not like I don't know that it tracks as erotic to men. I just wasn't thinking about it.

I hadn't heard about the preparation for childbirth, but I can see it. I had heard that women in harems used to belly dance as a preparation for sex because they never knew who the king would choose that night and once the choice was made, there was very little to the deed. Just wham, bam, thank you ma'am. So it was a way to stimulate a kind of foreplay between and amongst themselves, so that when you were brought before the king you were more receptive and in a non fearful or resentful mood, which made it easier.

Obviously, I don't know how true or ubiquitous that was. Women belly danced outside harems for centuries so even if there was something truth to it for those women, there was obviously more to it than that, all in all.