How to have safe sex during pregnancy

By Lee Hye-jun

A survey showed many couples become less sexually active during pregnancy, especially when the female partner is in the third trimester.

Some 80 percent of men said one of the biggest reasons for this is the fear of hurting the baby during intercourse, though the expectant fathers’ sexual desires were constant.

Some women experience a drop in desire for sex because of various reasons — hormonal changes, morning sickness or bodily adjustments.

For them, sexual activity become uncomfortable due to abdominal swelling or back pain. Concerns over the baby’s health and negative self-image sometime make women shun sexual activity.

However, sexual activity during pregnancy is harmless for fetuses except in some high-risk pregnancy cases. A high-risk pregnancy may involve miscarriage, preterm labor, vaginal bleeding, cramping, amniotic fluid leakage, premature cervix opening or a low-lying placenta (placenta previa).

Fetuses stay in mothers’ wombs, floating in the amniotic fluid. The fluid plays a significant role in cushioning and protecting them from outside stimuli. Also, they are surrounded by abdominal walls and uterus muscles, so light pressure on baby bumps does not harm the fetuses.

Another fallacy about sex during pregnancy is that it may cause miscarriage, which indeed is not true. Miscarriages are mostly caused by chromosomal abnormalities or problems with babies, not by mothers’ physical activities.

Orgasms induce uterine contractions, but it is different from that which occurs during labor. Therefore, orgasm does not cause premature labor.

Some researchers advise avoiding sexual activity near the due date and recommend it after the date, citing prostaglandins in semen which may trigger labor. However, it is unclear whether sex induces labor near the full-term.

Any sex position is okay as long as the couple feels comfortable, but women should avoid lying flat on their backs in late pregnancy because the baby can constrict blood vessels.

In that case, you can try lying on your side or find your own comfortable position. Oral sex is allowed as long as partners do not blow air into the vagina which may cause fatal air embolism.

In the aforementioned survey, men said their sexual satisfaction did not drop much during pregnancy.

They regarded close relationships with their partners as most important when it comes to sexual satisfaction, hinting that sex during pregnancy is needed as long as it is safe.

By the way, this is my final column. I hoped my columns helped the understanding of women’s health issues. Thank you very much for having read my columns.

The writer is a doctor at Maria Fertility Hospital in Seoul. For further questions, send an e-mail to the writer at hyejunlee@mariababy.com, call the hospital’s English-speaking coordinator at (02) 2250-5577, or visit the hospital’s website, https://eng.mariababy.com/