One of the most common questions that I get is “can I have sex while I’m pregnant?”. The answer is YES—have all the consensual sex your heart desires! (UNLESS you have been diagnosed as a high risk pregnancy and your physician has instructed you to refrain. In which case, explore other safer methods of pleasure!) .
Sex during pregnancy is great for a number of reasons:

• it’s a great bonding tool for you + partner

• it’s a great way to feel sexy and grow confidence in your changing body

• nipple stimulation encourages labor and strengthens contractions

• orgasms release adrenaline which can reduce stress during pregnancy and labor

• the hormone that starts contractions is oxytocin, which is the hormone that is released during orgasms

• if partner is male, semen contains natural prostaglandins that help to soften the cervix, causing it to open

Positions can be tricky as baby + belly grows so be sure to get creative with which ones make you the most comfortable. Laying on your side or on all fours tends to be preferable—use lots of pillows! And don’t trip, your growing baby is protected in the womb and surrounded by shock absorbing amniotic fluid 😉

Painful sex? You’re not alone, not even a little bit. Pain with sex is common; studies show that almost 75 percent of women have experienced it. It's even got its own specific medical term: dyspareunia, which covers every kind of genital or pelvic pain about sexual experiences, with or without penetration and before or after the experience. ⁣
⁣
In contrast to diagnosis for male sexual pain or dysfunction (which is typically more easily diagnosed partly due to a long history of gender bias— in the world— but specifically in medical education), female sexual dysfunction often dismissed or mislabeled because it depends on the individual’s perspective on their symptoms. For instance, female sexual dysfunction is an umbrella term that covers symptoms like pain during sex, low libido, and difficulty with arousal or orgasm. ⁣
⁣
There are many things that can influence how sex feels: pelvic floor muscles, libido levels, sleep levels, trauma, inadequate foreplay and lubrication, breast-feeding (which lowers estrogen), postpartum recovery, negative feelings about the partner, infection, hormonal birth control (which can affect the bodies’ #estrogen and #testosterone levels, causing changes in the vaginal tissues) and other life factors. There can also be fairly serious underlying clinical causes that can usually be resolved with holistic or pharmaceutical treatments. ⁣
⁣
Bottom line: you don’t have to suffer through painful sex, and you definitely don’t have to suffer alone. You deserve pleasurable sexual experiences