Does vaginal delivery affect postnatal coitus?

Abstract

The concern that vaginal birth will result in loose vagina and negatively affect their postnatal sexual life is one of the main reasons that many women choose cesarean section. Here we aimed to implement a new device to measure and compare the intra-vaginal pressures between women who gave vaginal birth and those who had cesarean section, and to evaluate the relationship between sexual function and type of delivery by Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI). A total of 165 women including 88 in the vaginal-delivery group and 77 in the cesarean-delivery group were recruited in the study. Significant differences in intra-vaginal pressures were found between the two groups, and intra-vaginal pressures of vaginal-delivery group were lower than those of cesarean-delivery group. Significant difference was also found in coitus time. However, no significant difference was found regarding sexual satisfaction and sexual function indicated by the FSFI. We concluded that vaginal delivery indeed may result in loose vagina compared with cesarean delivery. However, it did not negatively affect the postnatal sexual function. Therefore, women should be assured that their sexual functions won't be affected by the types of delivery.