ABSTRACT

CONCLUSION:

Coitus during pregnancy is not a risk factor for preterm delivery and it does not adversely affect neonatal outcome.

RESULTS:

95% of the entire study population had coitus during pregnancy. In the last 4 weeks of the pregnancy, 84% of the study group had sexual intercourse and this was significantly higher than the 76% in the matched controls but not statistically different from 94.7% in ongoing pregnancy group. Male superior position was commonly employed by all the women who engaged in coitus during pregnancy and there was no significant difference in assumed coital positions among the study and control groups. (P=0.5406.) Perinatal outcome was better in the matched controls than in the study group in terms of birth weight (3.1±0.3 vs 2.2±0.6: P=0.0001); Apgar score at 5 minutes (9.8+-0.6vs 9.1+-1.1: P=. 001); special care baby unit admission (57.3 vs. 18.6%: P=<0.0001) and neonatal death (12 vs. 0%: P = 0.003) There was no significant difference in perinatal outcome assessed in terms of birth weight, Apgar score, special care baby unit admission and neonatal sepsis rates between the subgroups who had coitus and those who did not, in the study group and the matched controls.

Study design:

This was a case controlled study. The study group were women who had preterm. For each study case, two controls were selected. The first control comprised women delivered at term matched for age and parity and the second control comprised women selected from the antenatal clinic with ongoing pregnancy and matched for age, parity and gestation age with the study case. Structured questionnaire was used to extract data from the study and control groups and neonatal data was extracted from the babies’ files. Data was fed into computer using Instat statistical package. Student t-test and chi square or Fisher’s exact test were used to test for significant difference between observations.

OBJECTIVE:

To determine the association between sexual intercourse during pregnancy and preterm delivery. The study hypothesis is that women who have preterm birth have had more sexual intercourse during pregnancy than women who carry their pregnancies to term.