Wednesday 21 January, 2009"Old wives' tale" is really wishful thinking

It's been nine long, uncomfortable months—maybe more—and you'd give anything to get that baby to come out, already. People—maybe including your doctor—keep telling you that what you really need to get the ball rolling is a good old-fashioned romp in the hay . . .

DON'T DO IT! It won't help, and it may even delay things for a few days more.

As reported in the June issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Dr. Jonathan Schaffir, of the Ohio State Medical Center, decided to find out whether there were any truth to the old tale. So he asked 95 women with low-risk pregnancies to participate in a study to evaluate the effect of intercourse in the weeks before delivery.

Overall, Dr. Schaffir said, about half of the women, 47, reported having sex at some point over the final few weeks of their pregnancy. (Two of the women delivered at another institution and were not included in the data analysis.) That proportion is larger than the 26% found in the largest study of sexual behavior in pregnancy, he said, although it's possible that simply being enrolled in the study might have inspired some of the women to try sex during the last weeks of pregnancy when they might otherwise not have done so.

In any case, having sex didn't bring the pregnancy to term more quickly: The sexually active women delivered their babies at an average gestational age of 39.9 weeks—even later than the 39.3 weeks of the abstinent group. The difference, about four days, was statistically significant (though it wasn't clinically significant). There was no significant effect for frequency of intercourse.

While having sex late in pregnancy isn't associated with any apparent morbidity, Dr. Schaffir said, he also pointed out that there's no data to suggest that physicians should recommend it.

Aw, shucks!