Journal article
Changes to sexual and intimate relationships in the postnatal period: Women's experiences with health professionals
H Woolhouse, E McDonald, SJ Brown
Australian Journal of Primary Health | Published : 2014
DOI: 10.1071/PY13001
Abstract
Women navigate many social changes when they become a mother, often including considerable changes to intimate and sexual relationships. This paper draws on data collected in an Australian multicentre prospective nulliparous pregnancy cohort study and a nested qualitative substudy exploring women's experiences of sex and intimacy after the birth of their first child. In all, 1507 women were recruited in early pregnancy (mean gestation 15 weeks) and completed self-administered questionnaires at 3, 6 and 12 months and 4.5 years postpartum. Eighteen participants were interviewed 2.5-3.5 years after the birth of their first child regarding sex and intimacy after having a baby. Interviews were tr..
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Funding Acknowledgements
The authors are extremely grateful to all the women taking part in the Maternal Health Study and, in particular, the women who contributed their time and energy to the substudy interviews. In addition, the authors are grateful to members of the Maternal Health Study Collaborative Group (Christine MacArthur, Jane Gunn, Shaun Brennecke, Peter Wein and Jane Yelland) who contributed to the design of study instruments, and to members of the Maternal Health Study research team who contributed to data collection and coding (Sue Perlen, Liesje Brice, Maggie Flood, Kay Paton, Renee Paxton, Martine Spaull and Marion Tait). This work was supported by grants from The National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC), the William Buckland Foundation and the Victorian Government's Operational Infrastructure Support Program. The NHMRC funded the establishment of the cohort with a 5-year epidemiology grant (2002-2006). SB held an NHMRC Career Development Award (2008-2011) and currently holds an ARC Future Fellowship (2012-2015).