What to expect when you're expecting: How will your sex life change during pregnancy and postpartum?
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Monday, July 24, 2023
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Welcoming a new baby is often a joyous experience for couples.
Key Points:
- Welcoming a new baby is often a joyous experience for couples.
- We then use this research to develop resources to help couples navigate these changes together.
What to expect
- Up to 88 per cent of people who give birth and 45 per cent of their partners experience problems with their sex life during this time.
- With shifting roles and responsibilities, the perinatal period (pregnancy and up to one year postpartum) can be hectic.
- It’s understandable that sex may be on the back burner for a little while.
The information gap
- This is despite most individuals wanting to receive sex-related information!
- On top of this information gap, the content of information that couples receive doesn’t match what they want to receive.
- In our study, we found that expectant and new parents most often received information about things like safety of sexual activity in pregnancy, contraception, when to resume sex in the postpartum and information only relevant to the partner who gave birth.
Translating knowledge into practice
- Health-care professionals feel they have a lack of knowledge and training to talk about sexual health with expectant and new parents, and worry that doing so would make them and/or their patients feel uncomfortable.
- However, our research showed that most couples would welcome these conversations.
- Researchers at Dalhousie University recently produced a series of short informational videos that summarize recent research on sex after having a baby.