Pregnancy, Sex and Labor

Good news for all of you dads-to-be out there… While it’s long been thought that sexual intercourse late in pregnancy can stimulate labor, there’s now scientific evidence in support of this idea. That’s right…

A recent study in the medical journal “Obstetrics and Gynecology” revealed that women who have intercourse late in pregnancy are far more likely to have a spontaneous delivery and are less likely to require induction than are women who are abstinent during the latter stages of their pregnancy. In fact, just 6.9% of sexually active women in the study had not delivered by their 41st week, as compared to 29.8% of abstinent women.

After accounting for factors including ethnicity, education, occupation, etc., women who had sex were 90% more likely to have delivered by 41 weeks, and almost 100% less likely to need labor induction. More specifically, having intercourse more than once per week was inversely related with prolonged pregnancy and the need for labor induction. So there you have it. Scientific evidence in support of having more sex.

[Source: CNN/Health]