Sexuality during pregnancy and the year postpartum

We report the sexual patterns of 570 women and 550 of their husbands/partners, not recruited specifically for sex research, at the fifth month of pregnancy (T1), 1 month postpartum (T2), 4 months postpartum (T3), and 12 months postpartum (T4). Although approximately 90% of couples engaged in sexual intercourse at T1, T3, and T4, only about 19% did at T2. On average, couples resumed intercourse around seven weeks postpartum. At T2 and T3, breastfeeding women showed significantly less sexual activity and less sexual satisfaction, compared with nonbreastfeeding women. There were few differences between women who delivered vaginally and those who delivered by cesarean, except that the latter resumed intercourse somewhat earlier. There was a high degree of agreement between husbands' and wives' reports, supporting the validity of self-reports of sexual behavior.