Can I have sex during pregnancy? Or are future parents forbidden carnal joys? Leading doctors say - it is possible, but subject to a number of recommendations.
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The Benefits of Having Sex During Pregnancy
A lot of words have been said about the benefits of sex for women and many articles have been written. Is there any benefit from intimacy for expectant mothers?
Here are a few of the main reasons for having sex during pregnancy:
- Proximity to a beloved man and subsequent orgasm contribute to the production of endorphins in the female body. The latter have a positive effect on the condition and well-being of the pregnant woman.
- Sex allows you to relieve emotional and physical stress, tiredness accumulated during the day.
- Physical proximity helps prevent stagnation in the pelvic area of a woman.
- Sex helps burn calories and maintain muscle tone. It is no secret that pregnant women move much less and more slowly than ordinary people. Thus, reduced locomotor activity may contribute to the addition of extra pounds that are not at all related to a child growing in the stomach.
- Coitus (intimacy) helps to accelerate metabolic processes in the female body. Due to this, there is a faster withdrawal of fetal waste. Thus, sex is also an excellent prevention of late toxicosis in expectant mothers.
It is interesting. In many countries, particularly in the United States, sex is used as adjuvant therapy to eliminate the symptoms of a number of diseases.
American scientists and doctors are sure that it is with the help of intimacy that you can achieve the necessary muscle relaxation and a decrease in uterine tone. Therefore, sex also protects a woman from abortion.
Precautions for intercourse
However, all of the listed bonuses of intimacy do not mean that sex during pregnancy should not be accompanied by precautions. Sexual intercourse during this period must be carried out taking into account the general well-being of the woman and the unborn child.
Important! If, after or during intercourse, the expectant mother notes pain in the abdomen or bleeding, closeness should be stopped immediately and a visit to the doctor.
To make sex while carrying a child as safe as possible, compliance with several rules will help:
- Careful hygiene. Before sex, it is recommended that both partners take a shower.
- The use of a condom. This aspect is not considered mandatory, however, many doctors insist on it. The uterus during pregnancy becomes sensitive to any changes in microflora. In addition, such protection will help to avoid various infections. If the use of a condom is not practiced, a man should carefully monitor his health and monitor for the slightest signs of urinary tract infection.
Particular attention to future parents should be given to love positions - many of them to use during pregnancy are not only inconvenient, but also dangerous.
Recommended and forbidden poses
The list of items that are convenient and safe to use during sex during pregnancy is as follows:
- "Rider". The advantages of this posture are obvious - the stomach is not squeezed, a woman can independently control the strength and depth of penetration. Nevertheless, this position is not very convenient in the third trimester, since it is already quite difficult for the expectant mother to move at this time. The output will be a change in the rhythm of movements: you can move not up and down, but also back and forth.
- Doggy Style. The woman is on all fours, the partner behind her. This position is recognized as one of the most comfortable during the bearing of the baby, as it helps to avoid tension of the back muscles. If female hands are tired of withstanding the load of the body, the pose can be diversified by sitting chest on a pillow. However, in this position all responsibility rests with the partner. A man should not forget about caution for a second and move with maximum accuracy, without increasing the amplitude of his movements.
- Spoons. Both partners lie on their sides, the woman pressed her back to the man’s chest. In this position, you can also shift all responsibility to a partner - a woman may not even move. The main precaution is to ensure that the man does not squeeze the belly of the future mother too much
- "Back to the man." In this position, a woman can sit lying on a man or sit on his lap. Strong shaking, as well as pressure on the abdomen, with this arrangement are excluded. However, this posture is not suitable for women with spinal problems.
Forbidden items include those that can put pressure on a woman’s rounded belly. Thus, for a while, the position of the missionary should be excluded, the woman on her stomach - the man on top, and some others. In fairness, it should be noted that such poses are not only harmful, but also not very uncomfortable, given the changed proportions of the partner's body.
It is interesting:tips on how to get pregnant if you can’t
Late Sex - Yes or No
In the early stages of pregnancy, proximity to future parents is often prohibited until about 12 weeks or longer. The period of relative permissiveness of sexual pleasures is the second and part of the third trimesters.Some doctors are sure that having sex in late pregnancy, that is, starting from 37 weeks and later, means at risk of premature birth.
However, Malaysian scholars believe that this statement is unfounded and greatly exaggerated. Specialists conducted a number of studies, involving more than 1000 women, whose gestational age ranged from 35 to 38 weeks. All participants abstained from intimacy for 6 weeks before the start of the experiment. Pregnant women of the first group did not abstain from sex and made love with a partner often and in many ways. The rest of the group had sex relatively rarely or completely discontinued these activities until delivery.
Studies have shown that 70% of the participants in labor started on average at 39 weeks, while 21% of the participants had to stimulate labor at all. Thus, scientists from Malaysia have come to the conclusion that having sex in late pregnancy is relatively safe - sex is not a stimulator of preterm delivery.
Such a statement, however, is true only for those women who have no health problems. Anyway, the issue of proximity in the later stages of gestation should be discussed with your doctor.
Oral and anal sex
In some cases, classic vaginal sex is contraindicated for couples. However, this cannot be an obstacle for partners who are keenly intimate. An alternative to traditional sex will be anal and oral sex.
Everything is relatively clear with fellatio - a woman can easily satisfy her partner with oral sex, all she needs is to find a position that is convenient for herself. With regard to cunnilingus, everything is somewhat more complicated. In principle, doctors do not prohibit this type of sex for couples expecting a baby. Nevertheless, caution is necessary in this case, because air entering the vagina can provoke an embolism, which can become fatal for the mother and fetus. And although in medical practice only 10 deaths of pregnant women have been noted as consequences of cunnilingus, the partner should in no case blow into the vagina area.
Anal sex is also not prohibited, especially if it is approved by the attending physician and if the future mother does not have hemorrhoids. Before such intercourse, it is absolutely necessary to use special lubricants.
When is love forbidden?
And yet, not only benefits can be expected from sex during pregnancy.
Proximity can harm the health of mother and child in cases where:
- risk of miscarriage;
- leakage of amniotic fluid (creates a risk of infection in the uterus);
- low attachment of the placenta, its presentation (can provoke bleeding);
- multiple pregnancy (sex is usually contraindicated after 20 weeks of pregnancy);
- signs of genital tract infection in one of the future parents;
- categories of high risk of pregnancy (for example, conception accomplished after IVF, etc.);
- spotting from the vagina or even bleeding.
In the event that there is a possible risk of miscarriage (the future mother had a spontaneous abortion or premature birth), most likely doctors will also recommend her to refrain from intimacy during the period of bearing the baby. Especially dangerous are the days of the alleged menstruation, in other words, every fourth week of gestation and the dates of previous miscarriages.
The hormonal background of pregnant women is unstable. It is for this reason that expectant mothers may passionately want intimacy, or else not desire it at all. Couples expecting a baby should not refuse carnal pleasures at all if there is no medical evidence for this and subject to careful sex.
