Pregnancy Stuff...

[juicyjamie18]

This will sound silly but it's serious. Are you allowed to have sex right up until the baby is born? Won't it get poked? And also, what is a womb? Is it just a big space?

[andy hughes]

You can have sex up until birth, although comfort issues may well prevent it being very enjoyable. The baby is securely protected from the outside world by a plug of mucus which prevents any foreign objects from entering the unterus, in the highy inlikely event that a man's penis is long enough to reach into a dangerous area. The womb is relatively small, but expands as baby grows, and then slowly returns to its usual size after the birth.

[vittoria]

Someone in my antenatal yoga class had written in her birth plan that, if the baby was overdue, she'd rather have sex with her partner in the hope of bringing about contractions, rather than be induced. So I gather if her midwife was happy for this to be in her birth plan, then it cannot be dangerous.

[rja211077]

absolutely - having a shag is a common way to attempt to induce birth. whether it has any scientific basis is a different matter. another is having a curry. mmmm....curry.

[RevShirls]

Agree with Andy here. There should be no problem as long as you are not swinging from trapezes etc. It is important to find a position that you are comfortable with - it is often more comfortable for a pregant woman to lie on her side when love-making.

[nykkieberry]

I did right up until labour! It was the only way to get my son moving! In fact, after twelve hours of labour and not getting very far, my midwife told me to go home and have a curry and lots of sex and nipple twiddling (apparently nipple twiddling brings on the delivery as it releases stimulating hormones.) Great fun! It's afterwards that the problems start...>;0)

[secretspirit]

Your womb is about the size of a closed fist when you're not pregnant but when you are it just keeps growing with the baby.

[vittoria]

By the way - just in case - I don't know if you are a pregnant woman, her partner, or just someone who wants to know - but it is just as well to be aware that it can be extremely dangerous to have sex for the first two weeks after the birth. Danger of embolysm, the woman can die. The week my daughter was born, I read in the Evening Standard that two women had died (unrelated to each other, in different parts of the country) because of having sex too soon after the birth.

[RevShirls]

I agree with Vittoria about the dangers of having sex too soon after the birth of your baby. Having said that, there is no way I felt like sex for a month after my baby was born. I hadn't realised that I would bleed so much for that month. My antenatal classes were in Swedish so maybe I missed something when they were telling us about that - lol

[vittoria]

RevShirls, I felt the same as you, but there was a couple who used to bring their children to the same health visitor's surgery at the time as me and the husband once told me (seemingly proudly) that his wife was pregnant again 2 weeks after the first baby was born. As the second one was premature, the age difference between the children was considerably less than 9 months... I confess I felt slightly nauseous at the thought; but you know, there as as many opinions as people out there... By the way I never tire of recommending "What to expect when you are expecting" which deals with almost every "conceivable" aspect of pregnancy and childbirth (sorry about the pun).