Despite a widespread belief that sex during the later stages of
pregnancy can jumpstart labor, a new study from Malaysia found no differences
in the timing of delivery between women who had sex near term and those who
abstained. "We are a little disappointed that we did not find an
association," said Dr. Tan Peng Chiong, an obstetrics and gynecology
professor at the University of Malaya, and one of the authors of the study.
"It would have been nice for couples to have something safe, effective and
perhaps even fun that they could use themselves to help go into labor a little
earlier if (they) wanted."
Tan said that many women believe intercourse can induce labor, and
scientists have proposed plausible biological explanations for why it might
help. For one, semen contains a hormonelike substance called prostaglandin,
which is used in synthetic form to induce labor. Breast stimulation is also
thought to hasten labor and orgasm can trigger uterine contractions.
Tan said the belief also probably came from "the deep seated folk
perception that intercourse in pregnancy may be unsafe and may cause pregnancy
expulsion or miscarriage despite fairly replete evidence to the contrary."
But few studies have ever investigated whether sex really can initiate labor,
and the small amount of existing evidence was inconclusive, Tan and his
colleagues write in the obstetrics and gynecology journal BJOG. So they set out
to see whether advising women to have sex during the final weeks of pregnancy
could help them avoid an induction. "Labor induction for prolonged
pregnancy is common and many women are also tempted for a variety of personal
reasons to trigger labor off in the very latter stages of pregnancy," he
said.
The researchers invited more than 1,100 women to participate, all of
whom were 35 to 38 weeks pregnant (the typical pregnancy lasts 40 weeks) and
none of whom had had sex in the previous six weeks. Roughly half of the women
were advised by a physician to have sex frequently as a means of safely
expediting labor. The other half were told that sex was safe during pregnancy,
but that its effects on labor were unknown. The researchers then tracked the
women to determine how long their pregnancies lasted and whether they required
any medical intervention to start labor.
They found that about 85 percent of the women who were encouraged to
have sex did follow the doctor's advice, while 80 percent of women in the other
group also had sex. Women in the group advised to have sex also had it more
frequently for the remaining duration of their pregnancies - three times versus
two. But the rates of induced labor were similar in both groups: 22 percent of
those advised to have sex and 20.8 percent of the other group had inductions, a
difference so small it is likely to have been driven by chance. Pregnancy also
lasted an average of 39 weeks for both groups.
Dr. Jonathan Schaffir, an associate professor of obstetrics and
gynecology at The Ohio State University College of Medicine who has studied
obstetrical folklore, said the findings offer good support for the idea that
sex won't induce labor. Earlier research had relied primarily on surveys of
women about their sexual experiences during pregnancy, but this study was
"the first attempt to really randomize the experience, for some to have
sex and some to not, which is a very hard thing to do," he said. Schaffir
wouldn't advise his patients to have sex for the express purpose of going into
labor, he added, but the study did indicate that there aren't any hazards to
it. "Even though this study did not show any increase in the rate of labor
or a decrease in the rate of induction, it helped to cement the idea that
having sex is probably safe if you want it," he told Reuters Health.
Tan said the results show that pregnancy evolved to be resistant to
disruption. "Human pregnancy has to be robust to a little adventure like
intercourse and unfortunately for our purpose, it seems pretty robust to the
very end," he said.
Source: Chicago Tribune
Please share
No comments:
Post a Comment