Sex Through The Trimester

Down-up-down. While that might sound like a new sex position, it’s actually a good description of the rollercoaster pattern most couples can expect their sex lives to follow during their nine months of pregnancy. In the first trimester, many women find that their libidos take a nosedive, plummeting promptly as soon as pregnancy hormones kick in. And that slowdown in sexual interest should come as no shocker. After all, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, and painfully tender nipples don’t make great sex partner. But as with all things pregnancy, no two women are alike, which means no two libidos are alike, either. If you’re lucky, you might actually find that the first trimester makes hotter than ever, thanks to the happy side of hormonal changes: genitals that are ultrasensitive and everthingly, and breast that are extra big and extra fun to touch (or have touched).

Interest often – though not always – picks up during the second trimester, when early pregnancy symptoms have subsided and there’s more energy to put into lovemaking (and when less time in the bathroom leaves more time in the bedroom). Never had multiple orgasm before (or any orgasm)? This may be your lucky break – and your chance to get lucky again and again. That’s because extra blood flow to the labia, clitoris, and vagina can make it easier to climax than ever before – and to have orgasm that are stronger and longer lasting, too. But again, nothing is given during pregnancy. Some women actually lose that loving feeling in the second trimester – or never end up finding it at all during their nine months, and that’s normal, too.

As delivery nears, libido usually wants again, sometimes even more drastically then in the first trimester, for obvious reasons: First, your watermelon-size abdomen makes the target more difficult for your partner to reach, even with creative positions; second, the aches and discomfort of advancing pregnancy can cool even the hottest passion; and third, late in the trimester it’s hard to concentrate on anything but that eagerly and anxiously awaited event. Still, some couples manage to overcome those late-pregnancy obstacles and keep up the action until that first contraction.