Resumption Of Sexual Relationship After Childbirth: Preliminary Observations On Husband\'s Attitude

Abstract

This study was conducted at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria between March 1998 and November 1999. The study sought to find out the preferred time husbands chose to resume sexual relationship with their wives after childbirth and the reasons for the preferred time. A total of 100 men with a mean age of 34.25 years (SD  7.05) participated in the study. An open-ended questionnaire developed by the authors was used to elicit information on relevant aspects of husbands' reproductive behaviour. We found that husbands' preferred time of resumption of sexual relationship with their wives after childbirth ranged from 3 months to above 1 year. Unlike husbands' age, educational attainment, wives parity and the family socio-economic class were not significantly associated with the preferred time of resumption of sexual relationship. The reasons given included the enhancement of their wives recovery from childbirth, marital obligation and avoidance of pregnancy among others. We also found that the most frequent reasons given at each chosen time of resumption differed. The immediate implication of our finding is that there exists an increased probability of the occurrence of pregnancies, intended or unintended, soon after delivery since a majority of the men (67.1%) chose to resume sexual relationship with their wives within 6 months of childbirth. Thus, it is suggested that, to achieve adequate spacing between childbirths, appropriate information concerning family planning methods must be communicated to women and their spouses in order to ensure optimal reproductive behaviour.

Keywords: Husband, Sexual relationship, Post partum.

Annals of Biomedical Science Vol. 2 (2) 2003: pp. 88-94