Image: iStock
A recent study by Australian researchers in the BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, suggests that pain during sex is not uncommon after childbirth.
Apparently, about 9 out of every 10 women complain of pain during the first intercourse after they have delivered their baby. And, around a quarter of women complain that sex is painful, even eighteen months later.
It has also turned out that Cesarean section deliveries or deliveries or by vacuum extraction make postpartum intercourse painful for women eighteen months after their delivery than woman who had vaginal deliveries.
Stephani Brown, principal research fellow at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, says that it is astonishing that most women go through painful intercourse the at the first instance after childbirth – irrespective of whether they get back to having intercourse six weeks postpartum or wait until six months postpartum. She adds that there is a widely held notion that those who undergo C-sections might not have to go through sexual problems after birthing, but studies suggest it is otherwise.
Painful sex, also known as dyspareunia is experienced by 3/4 of all women who give birth. There are many underlying causes of dyspareunia, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).
In the study by Brown and coworkers, they found that 1 out of 6 women would have been subject to abuse by a partner within twelve months of a delivery. Such women were more likely to have painful intercourse when compared to those women who faced no abuse.
The researchers studied more than a thousand women at six Australian hospitals where they became mothers for the first time. The women were contacted at around fifteen weeks into pregnancy and at intervals of three months since the time of giving birth.
At least 28% women experienced painful intercourse the year before getting pregnant.
Half of the surveyed women had a natural birth while about 11% had natural birth intervened by vacuum extraction, and another 11% births happened with intervention of forceps, suggest studies. Almost 30% of those who participated in the study birthed through an emergency or elective cesarean section.
Out of those participants who hinted at painful intercourse at six months after childbirth, a quarter expressed that the situation prevailed even at eighteen months postpartum.
Apart from abuse by a partner, there are many factors related to painful intercourse even before pregnancy; depressive symptoms, lower maternal age, and new mother’s fatigue levels.
While the health of the baby and the mother and a safe delivery remain a priority, electing the delivery techniques, be it surgical or vaginal, might not be considered, and its effect leading to future complications such as painful sex can not be ruled out. Pain during intercourse can also be associated with the physical, emotional, and sexual abuse on the part of a partner.
It also turned out in the study that women didn’t volunteer to discuss that they were abused unless they were explicitly asked by a health professional.
Brown also says that women don’t like to discuss dyspareunia unless they are probed about it. Despite the topic of sex doing rounds in media through sexuality related images, it remains a taboo, especially with regards to motherhood. She also suggests that obstetricians must urge women to be vocal about their sex-related issues if they experience any.
The study could bear good news for those women who are apprehensive of a vaginal birth because of their false assumption that a vaginal birth will lead to dyspareunia, and most women end up electing a C-section. What they don’t know is that it could turn out otherwise in case of a C-section! Women sure are concerned about the after-effects of childbirth on sex and their vagina, but most women are afraid to raise the subject with their clinicians.
