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Recovering Sexuality after Childbirth. What Strategies Do Women Adopt? A Qualitative Study

This study aimed to determine the strategies used by women to adapt to the changes that affect the first sexual relations after childbirth. A qualitative study with a phenomenological approach used three data collection techniques (in-depth interviews, discussion groups, and online forums). Thirty-s...

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Autores principales: Delgado-Pérez, Esther, Rodríguez-Costa, Isabel, Vergara-Pérez, Fernando, Blanco-Morales, María, Torres-Lacomba, María
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8775547/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35055771
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19020950
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author Delgado-Pérez, Esther
Rodríguez-Costa, Isabel
Vergara-Pérez, Fernando
Blanco-Morales, María
Torres-Lacomba, María
author_facet Delgado-Pérez, Esther
Rodríguez-Costa, Isabel
Vergara-Pérez, Fernando
Blanco-Morales, María
Torres-Lacomba, María
author_sort Delgado-Pérez, Esther
collection PubMed
description This study aimed to determine the strategies used by women to adapt to the changes that affect the first sexual relations after childbirth. A qualitative study with a phenomenological approach used three data collection techniques (in-depth interviews, discussion groups, and online forums). Thirty-six women in the first six months postpartum participated in the study, from physiotherapy centers with maternal child specialties in several locations in Spain. Women with different types of delivery, presence or absence of perineal trauma during delivery, previous deliveries, and different types of breastfeeding were included. Among the strategies, closeness support and understanding were the ones that women used to adjust to the new situation, in order to improve the couple’s relationship, intimacy, and cope with the significant changes that appear in the first six months postpartum. Changes and adaptations in sexual practices become a tool for coping with a new sexuality, especially if it is affected by the presence of pain or discomfort associated with physical changes. Personal time facilitates emotional management and improvement of emotional changes related to the demands of motherhood. Accepting the changes that motherhood brings is critical to dealing with the new situation. Strategies used by postpartum women focus on acceptance, self-care, partner, couple time, personal time, and adapting encounters. The findings of this study are of interest to health professionals as they provide insight into how women cope with the changes that appear in the first six months postpartum. In this way, the findings will be able to transmit to couples the alternatives they can adopt before the resumption of sexual relations to improve satisfaction both as a couple and in terms of sexuality after childbirth.
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spelling pubmed-87755472022-01-21 Recovering Sexuality after Childbirth. What Strategies Do Women Adopt? A Qualitative Study Delgado-Pérez, Esther Rodríguez-Costa, Isabel Vergara-Pérez, Fernando Blanco-Morales, María Torres-Lacomba, María Int J Environ Res Public Health Article This study aimed to determine the strategies used by women to adapt to the changes that affect the first sexual relations after childbirth. A qualitative study with a phenomenological approach used three data collection techniques (in-depth interviews, discussion groups, and online forums). Thirty-six women in the first six months postpartum participated in the study, from physiotherapy centers with maternal child specialties in several locations in Spain. Women with different types of delivery, presence or absence of perineal trauma during delivery, previous deliveries, and different types of breastfeeding were included. Among the strategies, closeness support and understanding were the ones that women used to adjust to the new situation, in order to improve the couple’s relationship, intimacy, and cope with the significant changes that appear in the first six months postpartum. Changes and adaptations in sexual practices become a tool for coping with a new sexuality, especially if it is affected by the presence of pain or discomfort associated with physical changes. Personal time facilitates emotional management and improvement of emotional changes related to the demands of motherhood. Accepting the changes that motherhood brings is critical to dealing with the new situation. Strategies used by postpartum women focus on acceptance, self-care, partner, couple time, personal time, and adapting encounters. The findings of this study are of interest to health professionals as they provide insight into how women cope with the changes that appear in the first six months postpartum. In this way, the findings will be able to transmit to couples the alternatives they can adopt before the resumption of sexual relations to improve satisfaction both as a couple and in terms of sexuality after childbirth. MDPI 2022-01-15 /pmc/articles/PMC8775547/ /pubmed/35055771 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19020950 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Delgado-Pérez, Esther
Rodríguez-Costa, Isabel
Vergara-Pérez, Fernando
Blanco-Morales, María
Torres-Lacomba, María
Recovering Sexuality after Childbirth. What Strategies Do Women Adopt? A Qualitative Study
title Recovering Sexuality after Childbirth. What Strategies Do Women Adopt? A Qualitative Study
title_full Recovering Sexuality after Childbirth. What Strategies Do Women Adopt? A Qualitative Study
title_fullStr Recovering Sexuality after Childbirth. What Strategies Do Women Adopt? A Qualitative Study
title_full_unstemmed Recovering Sexuality after Childbirth. What Strategies Do Women Adopt? A Qualitative Study
title_short Recovering Sexuality after Childbirth. What Strategies Do Women Adopt? A Qualitative Study
title_sort recovering sexuality after childbirth. what strategies do women adopt? a qualitative study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8775547/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35055771
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19020950
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