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Sexual activities of pregnant women attending antenatal clinic of a tertiary hospital in North-West Nigeria

INTRODUCTION: myths about sex during pregnancy harming fetus and leading to preterm labor or miscarriage are very strong factors releasing fear and leading to avoidance of sexual contact during gestation. We therefore evaluated the attitude, sexual experiences and changes in sexual function during p...

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Autores principales: Oche, Oche Mansur, Abdullahi, Zainab, Tunau, Karima, Ango, Jessica Timane, Yahaya, Musa, Raji, Ismail Abdullateef
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The African Field Epidemiology Network 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7757294/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33425173
http://dx.doi.org/10.11604/pamj.2020.37.140.25471
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author Oche, Oche Mansur
Abdullahi, Zainab
Tunau, Karima
Ango, Jessica Timane
Yahaya, Musa
Raji, Ismail Abdullateef
author_facet Oche, Oche Mansur
Abdullahi, Zainab
Tunau, Karima
Ango, Jessica Timane
Yahaya, Musa
Raji, Ismail Abdullateef
author_sort Oche, Oche Mansur
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: myths about sex during pregnancy harming fetus and leading to preterm labor or miscarriage are very strong factors releasing fear and leading to avoidance of sexual contact during gestation. We therefore evaluated the attitude, sexual experiences and changes in sexual function during pregnancy. METHODS: a cross-sectional study was conducted among 170 pregnant women who were selected using systematic sampling. Data were collected using an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Data was analysed using IBM SPSS® version 22.0. Descriptive statistics, Chi-square test and Cochran´s Q-test were estimated. RESULTS: the mean age of respondents was 27.2 ± 6.2 years. Most of the respondents, 107 (62.7%) had formal education. One-fifth of the respondents, 34 (20.2%) have been married for over 10 years. More than half of them were multiparous, 112 (68.3%) and in the third trimester of pregnancy, 99 (59.6%). Majority of the respondents, 153 (87.9%) thought coitus was safe in pregnancy. More than half 89 (58.2%) had coitus at least thrice a week before pregnancy and 98.8% have engaged in sexual activities during pregnancy. Most of the respondents, 105 (61.1%) enjoyed coitus during pregnancy. The desire for coitus significantly reduced in the third trimester, p=0.001. CONCLUSION: sexual intercourse during pregnancy was universal and respondents engaged in sexual activities during different stages of pregnancy. Although sexual frequency declined in pregnancy compared to pre-pregnancy period, most of the respondents desired and enjoyed it. We recommend that couples are well educated to understand the normal fluctuations in sexual interest and practices during pregnancy.
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spelling pubmed-77572942021-01-07 Sexual activities of pregnant women attending antenatal clinic of a tertiary hospital in North-West Nigeria Oche, Oche Mansur Abdullahi, Zainab Tunau, Karima Ango, Jessica Timane Yahaya, Musa Raji, Ismail Abdullateef Pan Afr Med J Research INTRODUCTION: myths about sex during pregnancy harming fetus and leading to preterm labor or miscarriage are very strong factors releasing fear and leading to avoidance of sexual contact during gestation. We therefore evaluated the attitude, sexual experiences and changes in sexual function during pregnancy. METHODS: a cross-sectional study was conducted among 170 pregnant women who were selected using systematic sampling. Data were collected using an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Data was analysed using IBM SPSS® version 22.0. Descriptive statistics, Chi-square test and Cochran´s Q-test were estimated. RESULTS: the mean age of respondents was 27.2 ± 6.2 years. Most of the respondents, 107 (62.7%) had formal education. One-fifth of the respondents, 34 (20.2%) have been married for over 10 years. More than half of them were multiparous, 112 (68.3%) and in the third trimester of pregnancy, 99 (59.6%). Majority of the respondents, 153 (87.9%) thought coitus was safe in pregnancy. More than half 89 (58.2%) had coitus at least thrice a week before pregnancy and 98.8% have engaged in sexual activities during pregnancy. Most of the respondents, 105 (61.1%) enjoyed coitus during pregnancy. The desire for coitus significantly reduced in the third trimester, p=0.001. CONCLUSION: sexual intercourse during pregnancy was universal and respondents engaged in sexual activities during different stages of pregnancy. Although sexual frequency declined in pregnancy compared to pre-pregnancy period, most of the respondents desired and enjoyed it. We recommend that couples are well educated to understand the normal fluctuations in sexual interest and practices during pregnancy. The African Field Epidemiology Network 2020-10-08 /pmc/articles/PMC7757294/ /pubmed/33425173 http://dx.doi.org/10.11604/pamj.2020.37.140.25471 Text en Copyright: Oche Mansur Oche et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 The Pan African Medical Journal (ISSN: 1937-8688). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research
Oche, Oche Mansur
Abdullahi, Zainab
Tunau, Karima
Ango, Jessica Timane
Yahaya, Musa
Raji, Ismail Abdullateef
Sexual activities of pregnant women attending antenatal clinic of a tertiary hospital in North-West Nigeria
title Sexual activities of pregnant women attending antenatal clinic of a tertiary hospital in North-West Nigeria
title_full Sexual activities of pregnant women attending antenatal clinic of a tertiary hospital in North-West Nigeria
title_fullStr Sexual activities of pregnant women attending antenatal clinic of a tertiary hospital in North-West Nigeria
title_full_unstemmed Sexual activities of pregnant women attending antenatal clinic of a tertiary hospital in North-West Nigeria
title_short Sexual activities of pregnant women attending antenatal clinic of a tertiary hospital in North-West Nigeria
title_sort sexual activities of pregnant women attending antenatal clinic of a tertiary hospital in north-west nigeria
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7757294/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33425173
http://dx.doi.org/10.11604/pamj.2020.37.140.25471
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