Sex With Your Child’s Mother Benefits Baby

Who’d have thought you’d read a headline that tells you to have more sex so your baby can be healthier?

Seriously, although there’s be a splash in the news about “faithful women having healthier babies,” the truth is a less fundamentalist-feeding finding and more scientific one.

A study out of New Zealand that looked at 2507 first-time mothers found that the less the mothers were exposed to the baby’s father’s semen, the higher the risk that she may become ill with a pregnancy-only disorder called pre-eclampsia. Pre-eclampsia is pregnancy-induced high blood pressure. Left untreated, it can cause severe problems for both mother and baby. (Duration of sexual relationship and its effect on preeclampsia and small for gestational age perinatal outcome)

Of course, having sex while pregnant isn’t always on the top of a woman’s priority list, so this isn’t a blanket “go for it” instruction. But many men do feel a little worried about harming the mother or baby during pregnancy.

Women are able to have sexual relations, right up to the end of their pregnancy, unless they’ve been told by their doctor not to. This could be advised if there are some complications to the pregnancy. In that case, vaginal intercourse is a no-no. But other than that, there’s no reason to put your love life on hold if she is willing.

If you’d like to read more about the study, there’s a post about it over at Healthbolt: Faithful Mom? Healthier Baby? Not Really

~~~

Image: iStock.com