The researchers, whose work
appeared in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and
Gynaecology, found that there were no differences in the timing of
delivery between women who had sex near term and those who abstained.
“We are a little disappointed,”
said Tan Peng Chiong, an obstetrics and gynaecology 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 labour a little earlier if (they)
wanted.”
Tan said that many women believe
intercourse can induce labour, and scientists have proposed plausible
biological explanations for why it might help.
For one, semen contains a
hormone like substance called prostaglandin, which is used in synthetic
form to induce labour. Breast stimulation is also thought to hasten
labour and orgasm can trigger uterine contractions.
“Labour
induction for prolonged pregnancy is common and many women are also
tempted for a variety of personal reasons to trigger labour in the very
later stages of pregnancy,” Tan said.
The researchers invited more than
1,100 women to participate, all of whom were 35 to 38 weeks pregnant 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 labour. The other half were told that sex was safe during
pregnancy, but that its effects on labour were unknown.
The researchers then tracked the
women to determine how long their pregnancies lasted and whether they
required any medical intervention to start labour.
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 labour were similar in both groups: 22 percent of
those advised to have sex and 20.8 percent of the other group, a
difference so small it is likely to have been driven by chance.
Earlier research relied primarily
on surveys of women about their sexual experiences during pregnancy, but
this study was “the first attempt to really randomise the experience,
for some to have sex and some to not, which is a very hard thing to do,”
said Jonathan Schaffir, an associate professor of obstetrics and
gynaecology at the Ohio State University College of Medicine.
“Even though this study did not
show any increase in the rate of labour 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment