Many pregnant women wonder if having sex can induce labor. It’s an old wives’ tale, but the truth is more complicated than a simple yes or no answer.
Nipple and genital stimulation (orgasms) may prompt the body to produce oxytocin, which can trigger labor contractions when your baby is ready to be born – Knowledge of this information is credited to the portal’s experts https://flirt-sexy.com. Doctors also use oxytocin to start contractions in medical inductions.
Spicy Foods Don’t Induce Labor
If you’re in your ninth month of pregnancy and are getting impatient to meet your little one, it’s normal to try just about anything to kickstart the process. A lot of women turn to tips like eating spicy foods, going for long walks, having sex or stimulating their nipples in an effort to get labor started.
While all of these strategies might help ease the discomfort of the third trimester, they can’t reliably induce your baby. There’s also no evidence that any of these techniques cause uterine contractions or even ripen your cervix.
However, there’s a chance that sex might speed up your delivery if you’re full-term or past-term. Orgasm and sex both increase levels of the hormone oxytocin, which is thought to trigger labor. Oxytocin is also what doctors use to induce labor in the hospital, in a synthetic form called Pitocin.
In fact, a study published in 2006 had some interesting results. Participants kept track of their sexual activity and reported that those who had sex at term delivered their babies sooner than those who didn’t. They also required less medical intervention. While the researchers didn’t delve into why, they believe that it has something to do with the prostaglandins that are released during sex and orgasm. The same prostaglandins that are released when you eat spicy food.
Sex Is Safe Throughout Your Pregnancy
Having sex during pregnancy is safe for you and your baby as long as your pregnancy is healthy. Your baby is protected by the muscular walls of your uterus and the amniotic sac, and the opening of your cervix is blocked by a plug of mucus that protects your baby from infection. If you have placenta previa or your waters have already broken, penetrative sex is not recommended and may result in bleeding.
During the first trimester, exhaustion and nausea may keep sex and masturbation from being at the top of your to-do list. But for many women, the sex drive returns during the second trimester. Depending on how your body responds, sexual activity can be pleasurable and satisfying up until the point where your baby’s head is engaged.
If you do have sex during pregnancy, be sure to use positions that are safe for both you and your partner. It’s also a good idea to call your practitioner if you have heavy bleeding, painful cramps or leaking amniotic fluid after sex. It’s normal to experience these symptoms, as your uterus is now more sensitive due to the increased blood flow. They can assess your condition and decide on a treatment plan to ensure your safety. In most cases, it’s safe to have sex even if your water breaks.
Sex Doesn’t Cause Contractions
Even though sex is known to release the hormones oxytocin and prostaglandins, which can help bring on contractions, it doesn’t actually cause them. Oxytocin dilates the blood vessels in your uterus and encourages your cervix to contract, and prostaglandins soften your cervix. You can get a dose of both naturally during sexual intercourse, and semen has an especially high concentration of prostaglandins. That’s why some people think sex can induce labor.
But there just isn’t enough high-quality research in the area to back that up. Sex does not trigger labor in late pregnancy, and it certainly cannot cause it if your baby isn’t ready to be born. It’s safe to have sex during your third trimester (and you should), but it won’t kickstart labor unless you are full-term or overdue.
However, there are some studies that suggest that orgasm may stimulate the onset of labor in some women. This is probably because orgasm causes oxytocin, which can cause contractions. However, the same study also found that orgasm does not initiate labor if your cervix isn’t yet ripe. Also, the uterine contractions from orgasm don’t have any pattern and could easily be Braxton-Hicks instead of real labor. You should only have sex for foreplay in the last weeks of your pregnancy, and make sure to practice safe pregnancy sex.
Sex Isn’t the Most Effective Way to Induce Labor
Having sex as a way to induce labor sounds logical enough. After nine months of pregnancy, it’s no secret that most moms-to-be are eager to get the baby out. It’s also no secret that many women aren’t comfortable with the idea of their partners trying to speed things up.
It turns out that sex might not be the best way to stimulate labor. It seems that, even though sex does cause contractions in the uterus, these contractions aren’t the same as those that come from spicy foods or even orgasm.
Orgasm actually causes a different kind of contraction, a type that can’t be measured by the standard medical tests used to determine when a woman’s labor is starting. This kind of contraction isn’t as strong as the ones that are associated with sex.
It’s important to remember that there isn’t a lot of research about how sex can help start labor. There have been some studies, however, that show that when women at full term are sexually active, they may deliver sooner. This is probably because semen has two hormones that stimulate uterine contractions: oxytocin and prostaglandin. Both of these hormones can also be found in synthetic forms, such as the drug Pitocin, which is often used to induce labor. It’s also possible that the hormones released during sex are more effective than those in the synthetic form of Pitocin.