How Soon Do Most Women Have Sex after Childbirth?

A delivery means a very stressful time for the vagina – the amount of stretching and pulling it takes is hardly bearable, it may easily end up bruised and torn. Even if everything went off well, it is in bad need of a good long rest. Therefore many American doctors tell new moms they had better wait a month and a half before resuming passionate episodes between the sheets. Someone might think the time is too long, but really, your vagina will be grateful to you for giving it a break.

It doesn’t mean people really suspend bedroom activities until the woman has run the test – the wish to try how it feels now gets hold of both of you, which is but natural. Yet, the question remains: when it gets to the right time?

Well, it may be longer than you think: 22% of women are reported to have abstained from sex for three months and more after giving birth. So, we have reasons to glean some knowledge from boffins before deciding.

Researchers at Sao Paulo University in Brazil have come up with some information on this point. Their study embraced over 800 new mothers who were asked about their resumption of sex life after delivering a baby. The study appeared in the Journal of Sexual Medicine and turned out to be quite a surprise to some!

According to it, the average time for a woman to stay off bed romps after a child runs to over two months. Meanwhile, there are other instances: about 17% of women felt ready for sex before six weeks expired, and over 60% regained the right mood sometime during the sixth week. Then the border line – and percentage – stretched out to six months, upon which time all 100% of women were sexually active.

Some results were rather regretful, like the 21% of those who complained about experiencing a decline in their bedroom life. The majority of those polled – 87% – admitted to wanting to go back to sex after their baby was born, but the remaining 13% must not have felt up to that.

Putting it all together, it tells us that a birth doesn’t hold up your sex life for very long, you just have to figure out your own time for resumption. It doesn’t do any good to go comparing yourself with others, so now you know the average time and you can go by that.

Those who were (unduly) impressed by the complaints about the diminishing of sexual enjoyment, bear in mind that the researchers can tell us only about so far into the women’s lives. Women with so much on their hands looking after the tiny newcomer and struggling under the state of having insufficient sleep – one can easily imagine some of them failing to gather enough enthusiasm for anything else, whatever. Chances are when they have finally adjusted to their new lifestyle, they felt the surge of the old passion.

So, just feel when you and your partner get in the mood for love, your vagina is well-rested and ready to play along – and set your own standards of normalcy.