Maternal sexuality during pregnancy and after childbirth in Muslim Kuwaiti women
The sexuality of Kuwaiti Muslim women before pregnancy, during pregnancy, and 6 months after childbirth was studied. A group of 220 women attending the prenatal clinic of the Maternity Hospital Kuwait were randomly selected; 40 (18.2%) declined at the outset, 10 (4.6%) withdrew due to miscarriage an...
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Published in | Archives of sexual behavior Vol. 24; no. 2; pp. 207 - 215 |
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Main Authors | , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
United States
Kluwer Acacemic/Plenum Publishers
01.04.1995
Springer Nature B.V |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | The sexuality of Kuwaiti Muslim women before pregnancy, during pregnancy, and 6 months after childbirth was studied. A group of 220 women attending the prenatal clinic of the Maternity Hospital Kuwait were randomly selected; 40 (18.2%) declined at the outset, 10 (4.6%) withdrew due to miscarriage and 10 (4.6%) due to failure to attend interviews. The semistructured interview was conducted by a female obstetrician at 4-week intervals starting from 12 weeks pregnancy to 6 months after childbirth. The study led to the following observations: (i) All the women were religious and abided by the Islamic rules and way of life. (ii) The diagnosis of pregnancy led to a decline in sexuality that continued throughout the pregnancy, with a second and early third trimester increase in sexuality but still below the prepregnancy baseline. (iii) Each woman had a consistent pattern of sexuality during pregnancy reflecting her prepregnancy level of sexuality. (iv) Younger age group, multiparity, low-level of education, lesser duration of marriage, and intention of breast-feeding characterized the sexuality pattern positively, as did attitudes towards sexuality during pregnancy and after childbirth. Breast-feeding mothers exceeded their prepregnancy level of sexuality earlier than bottle-feeding mothers. |
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ISSN: | 0004-0002 1573-2800 |
DOI: | 10.1007/BF01541581 |