Your guide to pregnancy sex in your third trimester
Feeling the ache? The last leg might not be the time for chandelier-swinging sex, but adapting positions and lots of foreplay means it won’t be totally off the menu…
As your body prepares for birth, don’t be surprised if you start producing more discharge, which will help keep the area clean and fresh ready for labour. This may make sex a little easier, and you might not need to use using lube any longer. You could also be thinking about when you need to stop having sex. But don’t worry. “If you want to, it’s safe to have sex right up until your waters break,” says midwife Sarah Fitzsimmons.
How to keep comfy during 3rd trimester sex
By this point, your bump will be pretty big so you’ll need to be inventive with ways to keep comfy during sex. “Your body becomes more flexible as it prepares for the birth, and although this sounds ideal for sex, it means you won’t be able to hold a position for very long,” explains Sarah. Leg cramps are also common in late pregnancy, so you might need to stop and stretch during sex. If you’re not up for high-energy sex, what about using a dildo to masturbate? “What worked before pregnancy might not afterwards,” says sex therapist Rachel Foux. “So keep reviewing and adapting what feels good.”
“Trying different things was fun!”
“At the end of my pregnancy I was huge, so we had to be really creative in the bedroom. Trying new things and different foreplay activities like massage, made me feel sexy and wanted, even when I felt quite big and unsexy. When I wasn’t feeling sexy or interested in sex, we found that talking really helped so he knew how I felt, what I wanted, and what I didn’t so we could try and keep us both happy,” said Jenny Mitchell, 34, from Sunderland, mum to Ryan, 11 weeks
When your sex drives are mismatched
Just like you, he’s excited and nervous as B-day approaches, so keep him involved with how you’re feeling. If you’re not up for sex but he is, don’t panic. Strike a balance of intimacy and pleasure for you both with a massage to ease your aches, pleasuring him afterwards so he doesn’t feel left out.
Can sex in the last few weeks bring on labour?
“Sex can, in theory, bring on labour, but you’d have to have a lot of it for it to work,” explains Sarah. “The hormones in your man’s sperm can kick-start labour, but even if you were having sex every day it probably wouldn’t be enough to trigger it, so don’t panic!”
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