Sex After Baby
Eventually, when your life settles down a bit and your body has begun its recovery from the birth of your baby in earnest, you will begin to think about sex again. You might be the woman who wants to start as soon as she can, or if you are like many women, you might have a delay in your sexual desire. Both variations are normal.
The general guideline is that it takes about six weeks postpartum until your body is ready for sex again. There are many factors that will influence whether or not you are ready to resume physical relations with your partner. Some of these relate to the birth itself.
Fact
Men can Kegel, too! Yes, they too have a Kegel muscle. To do Kegels, they simply concentrate on stopping the flow of urine, or while erect, making the penis move substantially. This helps stimulate the prostate gland for health benefits of its own, including enhanced sexual pleasure.
The Healing Process
If you had a vaginal delivery, even without any stitches, the area of the perineum will have still suffered from the trauma of giving birth. If you did have stitches, generally they will dissolve on their own in about two weeks. Your doctor or midwife will be able to give you exact details about how many stitches you had and the location of the stitches.
Having sex before allowing these tissues to heal or the stitches to dissolve can result in some problems with additional trauma to the perineum and vagina.
Was your baby born by cesarean delivery? You might think that this gives you a break, and in a way it does. Unless you experienced pushing, or a vacuum or forceps were used prior to C-section, your vaginal tissues should be fairly intact. However, the waiting game is still in effect for you as well.
Alert
Doctors used to sew an extra stitch into a woman's vagina after birth. The so-called husband's stitch is no longer used and is basically an old wives' tale. Be leery of any practitioner who claims to routinely fix a problem that wasn't there before.
Risk of Infection
The main reason that you are asked to wait until your six-week postpartum checkup to resume sexual intercourse is the risk of infection. No matter how you gave birth, the site of the placenta is healing. While it is healing, your body will produce a bloody to beige-colored fluid, called lochia, as it heals itself. Every woman will experience this discharge after the birth of a baby.
When the lochia has stopped, the placental site has usually healed. However, it's best to wait a week or two after you stop bleeding. You might go a day or two without bleeding and assume you are healed, only to begin bleeding again a few days later. Since sex can introduce bacteria and semen into the vagina and uterus, it is wise to wait until you are completely healed before resuming intercourse.
Birth Control
Then there is the issue of birth control. Contrary to popular opinion, you can conceive again right after having a baby. This can happen even before you begin to have your periods again as ovulation can precede your first period postpartum. While it is less likely to happen to a mother who is nursing full time with no supplementation or pacifier use, it can still happen in this case, too. Therefore, it is in your best interest not to have sex without the use of birth control. Talk to your practitioner about which method is right for you and your family. Many methods are perfectly acceptable, even with breastfeeding.
