Sex during pregnancy

Should you?

Can you?

How???

Being pregnant doesn’t automatically take away your sense of sexuality. In fact, some women feel sexier when they’re pregnant than they ever did before. But, feeling sexy and acting on sexual urges are two different things. Can you be sexual while you’re pregnant?

Unless you’ve been told by your doctor to be careful or to abstain from sexual activity because of a medical reason, there is no cause to avoid being sexually active while you are pregnant.

Some couples are uncomfortable with the idea of making love while the woman is pregnant; some men fear that they may hurt the baby. But if everything is ok with the pregnancy, then there’s nothing to stop you from continuing to have a healthy and active sex life.

When might sex be discouraged?

Again, you should take the advice of your doctor or midwife, but these are the general guidelines used to advise women not to have sex during pregnancy:

• if you are at risk of miscarriage
• if you have had pre-term labor or have had pre-term labor in a previous pregnancy
• if you are leaking amniotic fluid or your water has broken
• if you have been diagnosed with placenta previa, a condition where the placenta is partially or completely covering the cervix, blocking the opening to the vagina
• if you have an incompetent cervix, where your cervix is not strong and can open or dilate at any time
• if you are having cramping or vaginal bleeding
• if your partner has a sexually transmitted infection or disease

Stay tuned for another post on how to be sexually active and still comfortable, particularly in the later months.

Image: Newscom

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Don’t forget the Pregnancy exercise – and DVD give-away.

It ends July 1, 2008.