SEX AFTER CHILDBIRTH

It is often advised to wait with sex until the check-up at 6 weeks. If there are no complaints and you are no longer bleeding, you can do it earlier. It can often take a while before there is a need for sex again. Sometimes it takes a few months to a year. This has to do with all kinds of emotional aspects such as your changed role from that of wife to mother, but also with physical changes.

After childbirth, the vagina may still be sensitive to intercourse. Even if the delivery went without any interventions, the vagina can feel different. Due to a low estrogen level, the vagina becomes moist less quickly than in pregnancy and the vagina can feel drier. Having sex with a dry vagina is painful, causing the pelvic floor muscles to tighten. This narrows the vagina, making intercourse more difficult. Lubricant can offer a solution.

The pelvic floor can feel somewhat weakened and give a tired feeling after sex. There can also be complaints after a cesarean section.

You have sex for pleasure and not because you must. Talk to each other about why the sex drive is on the back burner for a while and find other ways to be intimate together. Hugging, kissing, lying against each other are all important to pick up the old intimacy again. If complaints persist, it is important to discuss this, especially if there are pain complaints. If desired, report your complaints to your midwife.