# How long after giving birth does a woman feel like sex again? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 18, 2006, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-giving-birth-does-a-woman-feel-like-sex-again/364974 "2006-07-18T04:35:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-giving-birth-does-a-woman-feel-like-sex-again/364974/21 "2006-07-19T00:20:27Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > Not to put words in gabriela’s mouth, but if she is saying what I think she means, change out the word from “desire” to “preference.” “By her desire” != “with her permission.” I’m sure in some marriages the wife is used to having sex with her husband whenever **he** feels like it, and why should her being bedridden in the postnatal ward change anything? Not criminal, but still rather callous. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-giving-birth-does-a-woman-feel-like-sex-again/364974/22 "2006-07-19T00:24:28Z")
The night my brother’s second child was born I was on the phone with my sister-in-law, and the first thing I said (entirely in jest, I assure you) was, “So, ya ready to start on the **next** one?” 😃 Her response would, I’m sure, have been much more colorful if she hadn’t been so tired. (She did have one more, eventually, and then had tubal ligation. All boys, all three delivered by c-section.) ---
**Author:** ![gabriela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@gabriela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gabriela)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-giving-birth-does-a-woman-feel-like-sex-again/364974/23 "2006-07-19T01:34:31Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > Are you saying they were raped? > [@Pushkin](#): > > The wording does make it sound like rape. > [@PunditLisa](#): > > Not to put words in gabriela’s mouth, but if she is saying what I think she means, change out the word from “desire” to “preference.” Oh, good gracious, no. I apologize for the cromulent lack of clarity of my posting. It was their husbands getting them pregnant. By “not up to the woman’s desire” I mean (unclearly) that it wasn’t up to their sexual desire. The OP heard two moaning voices, so I was not only unclear, but tangential. A side note: when I worked in LA County Hospital in the 1980’s, the clientele served was mostly people who couldn’t afford to go anywhere nicer. Many of them were poor rural women from other countries (chiefly Central American) whose culture included, so far as I and my colleagues could tell, more male sexual dominance within marriage than was permitted or considered acceptable in our middle-class families, and more emphasis on children as proof of a man’s success. Sort of like Hitler’s “kinder, kuche, kirche” for women. This meant that sometimes a married woman who was not interested in sex would give in to her husband’s desire to have sex, which is all I meant. The amazing thing was that any of them conceived. But some did. ---
**Author:** ![carlotta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@carlotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlotta)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-giving-birth-does-a-woman-feel-like-sex-again/364974/24 "2006-07-19T02:31:08Z")
After my first three births my vagina felt seriously traumatized for weeks/months. I certainly didn’t have sex for at least six weeks. I suspect it was a lot longer with my first who was hospitalized and very very ill. But, my fourth delivery was markedly easier. As soon as the baby was born I knew I was going to recover much much faster…there was no tearing and very little soreness and I was ready by three weeks. So it can really vary even for the same woman from birth to birth ---
**Author:** ![gabriela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@gabriela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gabriela)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-giving-birth-does-a-woman-feel-like-sex-again/364974/25 "2006-07-19T09:15:30Z")
> [@carlotta](#): > > So it can really vary even for the same woman from birth to birth Good point. ---
**Author:** ![Corrvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bbce88/32.png) [@Corrvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corrvin)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-giving-birth-does-a-woman-feel-like-sex-again/364974/26 "2006-07-19T09:45:55Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > My neighbors just brought home a new baby and I hear these very loud, inarticulate, non-baby-but-definitely-human noises through the walls last night . . . seems kind of hard to, you know, put the obvious construction on that . . . Wouldn’t a woman feel kinda sore for a while yet? I’ve been known to get pornographically expressive over a good footrub. That’s my bet. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-giving-birth-does-a-woman-feel-like-sex-again/364974/27 "2006-07-19T23:00:13Z")
> [@Corrvin](#): > > I’ve been known to get pornographically expressive over a good footrub. That’s my bet. Interesting. [files information away for possible use] ---
**Author:** ![gabriela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@gabriela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gabriela)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-giving-birth-does-a-woman-feel-like-sex-again/364974/28 "2006-07-20T09:53:49Z")
> [@Corrvin](#): > > I’ve been known to get pornographically expressive over a good footrub. That’s my bet. Yes, but were _both_ of you moaning? ---
**Author:** ![Corrvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bbce88/32.png) [@Corrvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corrvin)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-giving-birth-does-a-woman-feel-like-sex-again/364974/29 "2006-07-20T11:06:55Z")
> [@gabriela](#): > > Yes, but were _both_ of you moaning? Didn’t ask what I was doing with my other foot, did you? ---
**Author:** ![miamouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ad7895/32.png) [@miamouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miamouse)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-giving-birth-does-a-woman-feel-like-sex-again/364974/30 "2006-07-20T14:31:25Z")
> [@carlotta](#): > > After my first three births my vagina felt seriously traumatized for weeks/months. I certainly didn’t have sex for at least six weeks. I suspect it was a lot longer with my first who was hospitalized and very very ill. > > But, my fourth delivery was markedly easier. As soon as the baby was born I knew I was going to recover much much faster…there was no tearing and very little soreness and I was ready by three weeks. > So it can really vary even for the same woman from birth to birth just curious, did you have the same doctor/drugs for all four deliveries? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-giving-birth-does-a-woman-feel-like-sex-again/364974.md?page=1)