Vaginal Birth Doesn't Spoil Your Sex Life

A lot of women fret that having a vaginal delivery might inhibit their ability to enjoy sex after birth, and some even opt for a C-section in order to preserve their pre-baby anatomy.

However recent results from a study conducted in Holland show that regardless of the method of delivery, whether it be vaginal, Cesarean, or vaginal with the aid of forceps or the vacuum, birth appears to have very little impact on sexual activity at your child's first birthday.

The results did however show that a woman's sex life before delivery will reflect how it will be afterward.

The Dutch researchers who conducted the study, surveyed 377 women about their sex lives at 12 weeks into the pregnancy, and then again at one year postpartum. They found that those who were not having sex early in the pregnancy were 11 times more likely to not be sexually active one year afterward.

"This probably implies that satisfaction with the relationship is an important factor," says study author H.J. van Brummen, M.D., a researcher at University Medical Center Utrecht.

These results should reassure women who give birth vaginally that, except in rare cases, physical factors that follow childbirth should not affect your sex life after.

The scientists guessed that undergoing a C-section would have less of an impact on later sexual functioning compared with vaginal delivery. "But there was no scientific evidence for that," van Brummen says. "Our study should resolve some of this fear [about vaginal delivery]."