RELATIONSHIPS AND MARRIAGE
Regaining Confidence and Intimacy After Childbirth
Article written from Clinical Study HM Monteprincipe Hospital, Madrid, Spain, 2016; Proprietary Syneron Consumer Survey, 2015.
(BPT) - There's no doubt that a woman's life changes after having a baby, ushering a flood of emotions and deep love for her newborn. However, for some women, life after childbirth can also bring about difficult emotions, like increased insecurity around appearance and intimacy.
Although the majority of women positively adapt to the physical changes their body experiences during pregnancy, they often do not retain the same level of self-confidence after childbirth.[1] According to a recent study, more than 64 percent of new moms surveyed confessed their body image had worsened since becoming a mother.[2]
In addition to feeling self-conscious about weight gain and stretch marks, women also grapple with the functional changes that occur to their bodies after childbirth as the stretching that occurs to the vaginal wall and introitus (opening to the vagina) during childbirth often lasts well beyond delivery. According to a recent study, as many as 63 percent of women felt their vagina was looser since giving birth.[3] Loss of tone and sensation is also common for women who gave birth naturally, rather than by cesarean section.
Coupled with poor self-image, functional difficulties (such as dryness, itching and looseness) after birth can lead to women feeling self-conscious around their partners, making intimacy difficult. More than 8 in 10 women experience sexual problems in the first three months after their first delivery, and 62 percent of women surveyed attributed the negative changes in their sex life to post-partum vaginal looseness. [4],[5] And a year and a half after childbirth, 24 percent of women are still experiencing pain during sex.[6] We also know that a woman's body image correlates positively with both her and her husband's marital satisfaction.[7] So what can we do to solve the problem nobody wants to talk about?