Top 10 pregnancy sex questions answered

Maintaining a healthy sex life during pregnancy

There's no need to spend the next nine months fumbling around in the dark, looking for answers to all your pregnancy-related sex questions. Here are the answers to those questions that you've been waiting for someone else in prenatal class to ask.

1. Is it safe to have sex during pregnancy?
In most cases, yes. You'll only be advised to extinguish the flames of passion if there's a medical problem that would make intercourse or orgasm a risky venture, such as vaginal bleeding or leaking amniotic fluid, or if you're threatening to go into premature labor.

2. What about oral sex?
Oral sex is considered safe during pregnancy provided that your partner doesn't blow air into your vagina. That could result in a potentially fatal air embolism.

3. Speaking of oral sex, my partner says I taste different. What's that about?
The hormonal changes of pregnancy can give your vaginal secretions a stronger taste and odour that can turn some people off.

4. Does an orgasm feel different when you're pregnant?
It depends. For some women, it's business as usual; for others, it's a whole new world -- literally. While some women say that orgasms are more intense during pregnancy, others describe them as far less satisfying. And some women who've never had an orgasm in their lives report having them for the first time ever during pregnancy. So pretty much anything goes...

5. Is it normal to feel crampy after sex?
Yes, that's your body's response to the oxytocin that is released while you're having an orgasm.