THE FREQUENCY OF COITUS DURING BREAST-FEEDING

Background: New mothers and clinicians would benefit from an understan ding of typical sexual behavior during breastfeeding. Unfortunately, l ittle information is available about both the typical length of time t o resumption of coitus and the frequency of sexual relations during br eastfeeding. This paper describes the commencement and frequency of co itus among breastfeeding women in a variety of settings. Methods: The analysis draws on data from two separate research studies. The first w as undertaken in three sites (Birmingham, United Kingdom; Montreal, Ca nada; Sydney, Australia), the purpose of which was to correlate natura l observations of fertility with the underlying hormonal profile among breastfeeding women using the sympto-thermal method of natural family planning. the second was a clinical trial of the lactational amenorrh ea method of family planning conducted in Manila, the Philippines. Res ults: Coital frequency reported by these populations of breastfeeding women appears to be lower than that reported in other studies for marr ied women in general. As other research demonstrated, we found coital frequency and postpartum resumption of coitus to be associated with ag e, but not with the number of children in the household. Conclusions: A better understanding of the level of sexual activity among breastfee ding women could inform and improve programs that offer postpartum sup port and counseling about family planning.