After nine months of waiting to feel like themselves again, women can find that they are dealing with an issue they never anticipated after delivering their babies. That issue is suffering from low libido. And while women may have the most understanding of partners to support them during this time, it does not make the situation any better when there literally is not any energy left in the take to be intimate with those women are closest to. But knowing why moms may be suffering from low libido after babies may help them not be so hard on themselves until the time comes that the desire for intimacy returns.
The amount of exhaustion that women deal with when they are new moms is far greater than what was ever experienced before becoming pregnant. However, this is not something that is discovered until motherhood is experienced. Not only are women too tired to change out of their milk-stained clothes daily or prepare nutritious meals all the time, many times the last thing they have on their mind is having sex. Something that will eventually remedy itself when women finally feel like their old selves again.
Here is why moms may be suffering from low libido after baby.
Loss Of Libido After Baby Is Normal
First, women need to know that loss of libido is normal after having a baby. According to Seleni, most women deal with a loss of libido on one level or another in the weeks to months after delivery.
Most doctors will recommend that women wait six weeks before attempting to resume sexual activity after they deliver their babies. This time may be extended depending upon the trauma of the delivery. But that does not mean that women are emotionally ready, even if they are physically ready, to have sex again.
Something that women may be unprepared for when they believed that they would be ready to resume their intimate relationship with their partner after the timetable given by their doctor.
Reasons For Loss Of Libido
When it comes to a loss of libido after childbirth, there are several reasons why this happens that range from emotional to physical.
According to BabyCenterthose reasons include:
- Exhaustion: Being up late at night, breastfeeding, and having a baby attached to new moms all day can leave moms physically exhausted at the end of the day. And because of this, the last thing that women want to do is have sex.
- Hormones: Just when women thought that their hormones would start to get back in check after they delivered their babies, it turns out that after childbirth they are still in flux. Because of this, it can make new mothers both emotionally and physically feel like they are not ready for sex.
- Healing: Depending upon the trauma of childbirth, women it may take women time to heal. And because of this, it can extend the time it takes to get back to desiring sex.
- Postpartum depression: If women are dealing with postpartum depression, they are not in the right psychological place to desire sex. It will take overcoming depression to get to a place where women desire things that once interested them again. And that includes being intimate with their partner.
How Long Moms Can Expect Loss Of Libido After Baby To Last
While there are some mothers who will bounce back and be ready to have sex with their partners six weeks after childbirth, there are others who will take longer. But whatever the window is, women need to remember, according to What To Expectthat the loss of libido will not last forever.
Per the publication, many women take the six weeks after childbirth to be ready to have sex again with their partners. However, it can be as long as 18 months until women are truly ready to be intimate again.
As such, if women fall within this window of time, they should not be worried about their lack of libido. But, if they are concerned along the way or continue to not have a desire to be intimate past this time, a consultation with a healthcare professional is recommended.
Ways To Reignite The Libido After Baby
When women want to be intimate with their partners but are struggling, there are ways that they can try to reignite their libidos so that the desire to have sex returns.
According to Today’s Parentways to bring back the desire to have sex include:
- Mothers taking time to relax and pamper themselves
- Try new ways of seduction with your partner
- Spend quality time together as a couple without having sex
- Determine why sex is so low on the list of priorities and work on making it more of a priority
- Remember that sex is fun
- Be open to trying new locations if having sex in the bedroom with baby there is unnerving
There is no right time to be intimate again with a partner. But if women are ready and just need a bit of motivation to get their libidos back, being open to trying new things may just be what gets them back in the saddle of their intimate portion of their relationship.
Source: Seleni, BabyCenter, What To Expect, Today’s Parent