Sex in pregnancy does not advance delivery

Sex in the last months of pregnancy is not always responsible for triggering the birth. Despite the belief that practicing sex could precipitate delivery in the last trimester and the recommendations of gynecologists to abstain so that delivery does not go ahead, a study has just revealed that sex i

Practicing sex is safe in pregnancy

During the first trimester of pregnancy, many couples have had certain qualms about practicing sex for a supposed danger of detachment, which together with the discomforts and uncertainties of the first months of pregnancy left sex a bit parked. These fears that soar in the second trimester of pregnancy with an improvement of the general state and with a wonderful tummy that does not bother at all, came back strongly in the third trimester of pregnancy when we began to see the delivery close.

The danger that delivery may be anticipated at any time in the last three months of pregnancy is not such.A study in Malaysia has just questioned a widespread belief that sex during the last stage of pregnancy can advance labor. The researchers of this study published in BJOG, International Publication of Obstetrics and Gynecology, have not found differences between the moment of delivery of women who maintained sexual relations near the end of pregnancy and those who abstained. The research was conducted with 1,100 women and the figures for induced labor were similar in both groups: 22 percent of those who were advised to have sex and 20.8 percent of the other group, a difference so small that it probably due to chance, think the scientists.

The theory on which the claim that sex can trigger birth is based is thatsemen contains hormones called prostaglandins,which are the same ones that are used synthetically to induce labor. At the same time, it was believed that the orgasm could cause uterine contractions and that the stimulation of the breasts during sex could be considered an accelerator of childbirth.

However, this research has not shown any increase in the birth rate or a decrease in the rate of induced pregnancies. On the contrary, it has helped to consolidate the idea that having sex is safe at that stage of pregnancy. Apparently, what the study really shows is that pregnancy has evolved over the decades to be resistant to interruption.

Marisol Nuevo. Editor of Guiainfantil.com