Sex During Pregnancy

Sex during pregnancy. My wife is three months pregnant. Is it okay for us to have sex? I feel embarrassed to ask our family doctor. We are avoiding sexual contact; but I do feel the urge for sex. What do we do?
This is one of the most common questions posed by couples expecting their first child. Their lack of knowledge regarding the correct method, timing and frequency cause varied misconceptions and at times, a total withdrawal from sex. This often backfires, as the woman, owing to her psychological state and emotional needs, fails to understand the behavioural changes in her partner. Here’s what to expect.

Emotions on high

During pregnancy, a woman’s mental make-up undergoes a dramatic change. She becomes emotional and sometimes oversensitive. The way her needs are acknowledged (or dismissed) affects her mental state and thereby the foetus as well. If she feels that her husband is not adequately responsive, she may get irritable, and suffer from insomnia,loss of appetite or over-stimulated hunger.

Most men are unaware that their behaviour often causes these emotional upheavals. Many take the easy way out and take their wife to the doctor, without realising that she simply needs her husband to understand her moods, feelings and anxieties.

Discrepancy in sex drives

The changes taking place in the mother-to-be are part of her biological make-up. Hormonal and chemical changes prepare her for conception, pregnancy and childbearing. The awareness that she is pregnant creates new aspirations and sexual relations go down the priority ladder. There is, however, no such biological change in the man. He needs to make himself aware of the physical and emotional demands of fatherhood, but continues to feel the urge for intercourse. In such a situation, it is essential that he does not force this one-sided need on his pregnant wife.

For intercourse

Though a woman may not have strong sexual urges, she does need warm and gentle physical contact and caressing. In the process, if she is aroused and willing, they can have intercourse too. However...
- Avoid the missionary (man-superior) position. Woman on top position is advisable, or they both could be in a sitting position, so that there is no pressure on her abdomen and that movement is gentle.

- The ‘spoon position’ is also recommended. The position is when the couple lie on their sides, their legs bent upwards, both facing in the same direction, with the man behind the woman. It is called the ‘spoon’ position because it is like two spoons, one nestling inside the other. This is a very ‘gentle’ position as neither partner is putting any weight on the other, and it is particularly good for making love to a pregnant woman.

Watch out for

• If, during missionary position, the man is on the top, his weight bears down on the woman, and without his realisation, the movements can become rough. This, in turn, can disturb the foetus.

• Intercourse should be avoided from the sixth to the twelfth week of the pregnancy, as it can cause miscarriage. Sexual abstinence is recommended during the last two months of pregnancy as well. At this time, if one indulges in sexual intercourse, there is risk of the essential amniotic fluid leaking out, causing complications.

• During the fourth to seventh month of pregnancy, intercourse is allowed unless you are otherwise advised for medical reasons.

• Sexual acts such as oral and anal sex should be avoided.

Word of caution

During pregnancy, a woman does not retain her shapely figure. It is possible that the man may be sexually drawn to other women. In fact, men are often tempted to indulge in extra-marital affairs during this time. A woman’s needs during pregnancy undergo a major transition. It’s certainly not right, if the husband, instead of understanding this change, enters a relationship outside marriage.

This can be dealt with if the man is equally involved with the pregnancy. In fact, the couple can create deeper bonds during this period. Being present during sonograph sessions, choosing the baby’s name, his/her new clothes, etc can help men grow in their new role. (indiatimes.com )

Teenage Mothers 'More Likely to Give Birth Prematurely'

Teenage mothers 'more likely to give birth prematurely'. Teenage mothers are more likely to give birth prematurely and have underweight babies, research shows.
The study also indicated that one quarter of teenage mothers get pregnant again before they turn 20, and that they are at particular risk of a preterm birth the second time around.

Premature babies are more susceptible to a range of medical problems and are at greater risk of dying in the first year of life

These teenagers are 93 per cent more likely than adult women to give birth early, prompting experts to warn that must me done to prevent girls becoming pregnant again immediately after giving birth.

Researchers at the University College Cork in Ireland, who conducted the survey of more than 55,000 births, called for more health and sex education to prevent the “biological immaturity” of young mothers from damaging their babies’ prospects.

Premature babies – generally defined as those born earlier that 37 weeks in pregnancy – are more susceptible to a range of medical problems and are at greater risk of dying in the first year of life.

The study of children born to mothers aged between 14 and 29 in the North West of England found that younger teenagers were more prone to premature birth than older teenagers.

Ali Khashan, who carried out the research, said the results indicated that some teenage girls were failing to receive proper medical advice after becoming pregnant – and that young mothers tended to slip through the net of the health services when they had a second child.

Dr Khashan said: "It is possible that the increased risk of poor pregnancy outcome is related to biological immaturity.

“It is also possible that the increased risk of poor pregnancy outcome in the second teenage pregnancy is related to numerous complicating factors such as greater social deprivation and less prenatal care."

Professor Louise Kenny, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Cork University Maternity Hospital, who led the study, said: " A first pregnancy may be the first and only time a pregnant teenager interacts with health services and this opportunity should not be overlooked". ( telegraph.co.uk)

Rise in Teenage Pregnancy Rate

Rise in teenage pregnancy rate. The pregnancy rate among teenage girls in the United States has jumped for the first time in more than a decade, raising alarm that the long campaign to reduce motherhood among adolescents is faltering, according to a report released Tuesday.

The pregnancy rate among 15-to-19-year-olds increased 3 percent between 2005 and 2006 -- the first jump since 1990, according to an analysis of the most recent data collected by the federal government and the nation's leading reproductive-health think tank.

Teen pregnancy has long been one of the most pressing social issues and has triggered intense political debate over sex education, particularly whether the federal government should fund programs that encourage abstinence until marriage or focus on birth control.

"The decline in teen pregnancy has stopped -- and in fact has turned around," said Lawrence Finer, director of domestic research for the Guttmacher Institute, the nonprofit, nonpartisan research group in New York that conducted the analysis. "These data are certainly cause for concern."

The abortion rate also inched up for the first time in more than a decade -- rising 1 percent -- intensifying concern across the ideological spectrum.

"One of the nation's shining success stories of the past two decades is in danger of unraveling," said Sarah Brown of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. "Clearly, the nation's collective efforts to convince teens to postpone childbearing must be more creative and more intense, and they must begin today."

The cause of the increase is the subject of debate. Several experts blamed the increase in teen pregnancies on sex-education programs that focus on encouraging abstinence. Others said the reversal could be due to a variety of factors, including an increase in poverty, an influx of Hispanics and complacency about AIDS, prompting lax use of birth control such as condoms.

"It could be a lot of things coming together," said Rebecca Maynard, a professor of economics and social policy at the University of Pennsylvania. "It could be we just bottomed out, and whenever you are at the bottom, it tends to wiggle around. This may or may not be a sustained rise."

The report comes as Congress might consider restoring federal funding to sex-education programs that focus on abstinence. The Obama administration eliminated more than $150 million in funds for such groups, but the Senate's health-care reform legislation would reinstate $50 million.

The new findings immediately set off a debate over funding. Critics argued that the disturbing new data were just the latest in a long series of indications that the focus on abstinence programs was a dismal failure.

"Now we know that after 10 years and over $1.5 billion in abstinence-only funding, the U.S. is lurching backwards on teen sexual health," said James Wagoner of Advocates for Youth, a Washington advocacy group.

Supporters of abstinence programs, however, said the findings provided powerful evidence of the need to continue to encourage delayed sexual activity, not only to avoid pregnancy but also to reduce the risk for AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

"Research unmistakably indicates that delaying sexual initiation rates and reducing the total number of lifetime partners is more valuable in protecting the sexual health of young people than simply passing out condoms," said Valerie Huber of the National Abstinence Education Association, who blamed the increase on several factors.

"Contributors include an over-sexualized culture, lack of involved and positive role models, and the dominant message that teen sex is expected and without consequences," Huber said. The Obama administration is launching a $110 million pregnancy prevention initiative focused on programs with proven effectiveness but has left open the possibility of funding some innovative approaches that include encouraging abstinence.

The rate at which U.S. teenagers were having sex rose steadily through the 1970s and 1980s, fueling a sharp rise in teen pregnancies and births. That trend reversed around 1991 because of AIDS, changing social mores about sex and other factors, including greater use of contraceptives, which pushed the U.S. teen pregnancy rate to historic lows.

The U.S. rates still remained higher than those in other industrialized countries.

The decline in teen sexual activity had leveled off starting about nine years ago, and the teen birth rate began to increase in 2005. It wasn't known before if the increase was due to more pregnancies or fewer abortions and miscarriages. For the first time, the new analysis uses those factors in calculating the teen pregnancy rate.

The analysis examined data on teenage sex and births collected by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics and data on abortions collected by the CDC and Guttmacher -- the two best sources of such data.

The abortion rate among teenagers rose 1 percent in 2006 from the previous year -- to 19.3 abortions per 1,000 women in that age group, the analysis found. Taking that and miscarriages into account, the analysis showed that the pregnancy rate among U.S. women younger than 20 in 2006 was 71.5 per 1,000 women, a 3 percent increase from the rate of 69.5 in 2005. That translated into 743,000 pregnancies among teenagers, or about 7 percent of women in this age group.

"When birth rates go up and down, it could be the result of kids getting fewer abortions," said John Santelli, a professor of population and family health at Columbia University. "This shows that it's a true rise in pregnancies."

The rate increase was highest for blacks. Among blacks, the rate increased from 122.7 per 1,000 in 2005 to 126.3. For Hispanics the rate rose from 124.9 per 1,000 women to 126.6. Among whites, the rate increased from 43.3 per 1,000 women to 44.0. ( washingtonpost.com)