Parents experience a change in sexuality following the birth of a child, with low sexual desire linked to factors related to the care of the baby like stress and fatigue, suggests new research in the US.
The retrospective online survey, involving 114 partners of postpartum women (95 men, 18 women, 1 unspecified), questioned new parents about their sexuality in the 3 months following the birth of their youngest child to determine changes in physical, social, psychological and relational experiences.
The results showed that in the first 3 months following birth, 81.7 percent of partners reported reengagement of sexual intercourse with the birth mother, 69.6 percent reported participating in oral sex and 72.7 percent reported masturbating. Masturbation occurred earlier in the postpartum period than did intercourse (p<0 .001="" all="" and="" between="" birth="" both="" but="" differences="" either="" enjoyed="" enjoyment="" equally="" groups="" higher="" in="" initiation="" intercourse="" it="" masturbation="" mother="" no="" of="" on="" or="" oral="" p="0.359).</p" parent.="" participated="" partner="" postpartum="" reengage="" reported="" s="" sex="" significant="" than="" the="" there="" time="" to="" took="" was="" were="" with="">
Participants ranked factors related to sexual and intimate feeling in participants and their partners as most frequently contributing to high desire and fatigue and stress as the top influences for low desire. Time constraints was selected as the third most common factor contributing to low postpartum sexuality. There were no significant differences between the genders in self-reported perceived stress, body image self-consciousness or average level of fatigue (all p>0.40). However, women partners of new mothers perceived more support from their significant others and friends and had significantly higher overall social support scores than their male counterparts (all p<0 .035="" p="">
“Results from this study and previous research suggest that postpartum sexuality can be conceptualized as an individualized experience within a partnership, as well as one that occurs in a larger social and relational context,” said study author Dr. Sari M. van Anders of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, US, and colleagues.
“While most studies on postpartum sexuality focus on the birth mother, few if any have examined the role of sexuality in the mother’s partner and whether this in turn influences the birth mother’s perception of her own sexuality,” said Dr. Juan Dominguez, principal investigator of the Neuroendocrinology and Motivation Lab at the University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Psychology.
Dominguez warned that these gender-specific findings should be interpreted with caution due to the small sample size of women partners and time lapse between the postpartum period and the collection of data.
“This small caveat notwithstanding, the study provides a clearer window in which to view the postpartum sexuality of co-parents, how postpartum sexuality may vary between partner’s gender, and the idiosyncratic changes in sexual activity that follow parturition,” added Dominguez. “These findings will be a source of information for health professionals who counsel mothers after birth.”
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