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Sexuality After Baby
Gentle Ways to Reignite Your
Sex Life
Sex Life
By Laura Paul
Some men might be tempted to secretly masturbate to relieve sexual tension. Judith Curts, a psychotherapist and sexologist in Tampa, Fla., says it is always acceptable for an individual to masturbate, but the key is to be open and honest about it. Otherwise, a woman might resent the fact that her partner has taken matters literally into his own hands. "Honesty is best in all relationships," Curts says. "She can certainly have her arms around him if he wants to pleasure himself. They can hold each other, touch each other. She is going to need to be touched in very loving and gentle ways without being responsible for his sexual needs." 
Gracie Blodgett, a sexologist living in Hawaii nd former midwife, says men share universal concerns when it comes to postpartum sex. Men don't want to hurt their partners, be rejected, seem insensitive to her feelings or fail to "perform." "During this time period, a woman's hormones tend to be a tad out of balance, but it is not uncommon for the woman to be interested in having sexual relations with her partner as well as vice versa," says Blodgett, a mother of four. "It does not need to be a time of stress for either of them; indeed, it can be most fulfilling given the monumental experience they have just experienced between each other."
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