Not Talking About Sex
January 26, 2006 by kate baggott
Filed under Infancy
Today’s Parent magazine is one of my favorite parenting resources, and not just because they’ve paid me to write for them on occasion. I like it because they have an answer to even the most embarrassing questions.
When a mother comes to that 6 to 8 week point in her post partum recovery, the embarrassing questions are generally about sex. While I am generally a pretty open kind of person, I wanted to address these questions without writing about my own sex life (or lack thereof). Hence, the link to the article That Loving Feeling: How to Rekindle Your Sex Life After Baby.
“Any article about sex after baby can be three words long: There isn’t much,” one new mother told author Teresa Pitman. While the article does, at times, reinforce this truth, the article does expose the hypocrisies of conventional advice to new parents and lets mothers and fathers alike stop feeling guilty about not feeling up to the big IT.
I was also pleased to find Five Secrets to Aging Well on the magazine’s site. I found it a balm for the new mother’s soul. Neither getting enough sleep nor getting enough sex are on the list of secrets to aging well!
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Check out what others are saying about this post...[...] I know, it was embarrassing when your mother and father told you about the birds and the bees. It was more than uncomfortable when we had “health studies” days instead of gym class. And, it still makes me uncomfortable now. Still, it needs to be repeated. New mothers and women who are nursing still need to worry about birth control. [...]
[...] As you know, I avoid talking about sex, even though the question on almost every new mother’s mind is when, or even if, she will ever feel like doing the deed again. There are a lot of reasons for a post partum mother to avoid sex. First, there is the prohibition against doing it while the postpartum blood is still in evidence due to fear of infection. This later progresses to a fear of pain, and goes on to memories of being stitched back together. Add to that sleep starvation, fear of another pregnancy, the hormonal demands and changes of breastfeeding…the lack of desire can fill a room. Read the rest of this entry » Technorati Tags: sex and the new mother October 9th, 2006 | Permalink | No Comments » [...]