![ORCID Icon]({"type":"image","src":"/templates/jsp/_style2/_tandf/images/orcid.svg"} "ORCID Icon"){kind=small}
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4999-1584
![Sample our Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing & Allied Health journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5944/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Medicine-Dentistry-Nursing-Allied-Health.jpg"})
![Publish Open Access Finland]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110396/JournalAd-OA-Agreements.gif"})
![Call for Papers.]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/111130/JournalAdOASubmissionZRHM.jpg"})
Abstract
Purpose
To evaluate how sexual pain influences changes in sexual frequency from the pregnancy to postpartum transition, and to examine how couple’s sexual communication interacts with sexual pain during pregnancy.
Methods
We explored data following 159 mixed-sex couples across the transition from pregnancy to 6 months postpartum. Couples completed the Relationship Quality Interview and the Marital Satisfaction Inventory-Revised, which assessed their sexual communication, pain and other sexual problems during pregnancy, and frequency of intercourse at pregnancy and postpartum.
Results
Overall, couples reported a decline in sexual activity from pregnancy to postpartum. Women’s sexual pain during pregnancy influenced changes in sexual frequency only among couples who reported poorer communication about sex. Among couples reporting sexual pain and good communication, pain did not impact changes in sexual frequency (i.e. they experienced significant declines in sexual activity into the postpartum period, as expected). In contrast, among couples with poor communication, sexual frequency did not significantly decline.
Conclusion
Our findings suggest that sexual communication alters the effects of sexual pain on postpartum sexual activity. Future research should examine if sexual communication training during pregnancy improves postpartum sexual wellbeing.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the families who participated in this research and the entire team of research assistants who contributed to various stages of the study. In particular, we thank Jennifer Blake and Kailee Groshans for project coordination, and Cody Meyer for coding the sexual pain data and contributions to the literature review.
Disclosure statement
The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.