Having a baby can do some serious damage to your sex life. Once you're in full mommy mode, you and your partner may find yourselves too tired or just plain uninterested in getting busy. But if you do find a little time for intimacy, you want to make sure the experience is worth all of the effort. You may be wondering if any complications or interventions you had during childbirth will impact your ability to enjoy sex. And you may be asking, does having a traumatic birth affect my orgasm? For a friend, of course.
After having a baby, you will have to wait a while before resuming any sexual activity. But when you do, it should be just as enjoyable. As Self noted, Although sex may feel different to you and your partner after baby, there is no reason to fear that either of you will have any problems finding pleasure in getting it on, according to Self . In fact, as OB-GYN Dr. Kelly M. Kasper told Self, you may even find that your orgasms are more intense as the nerves in your pelvic area recover from the trauma of delivery.
Having an episiotomy — a perineum incision which expands the opening of the vagina — won't likely affect your ability to have an orgasm, according to Psychology Today. However, episiotomies have been linked to an increase in pain and dryness during intercourse, which can make it more difficult to enjoy sex. According to Parenting, episiotomy scars can make sex uncomfortable for at least six weeks, and possibly up to one year postpartum.
But that doesn't mean that you have to avoid sex all together. You and your partner may just have to be a little more creative when it comes to getting busy. Try Kegel exercises — the act of contracting and releasing your pelvic muscles — during sex to help intensify your orgasms, as Everyday Family suggested. It can also help to do some extra things to set the mood. Lighting candles, playing music, and more foreplay can help prepare you for a more pleasurable experience.
