Sexual health after childbirth: a qualitative study of women's experiences.

BACKGROUND

Sexual health is a vital component of overall well-being but receives limited attention in postpartum care. This study aimed to explore how pregnancy and childbirth shape women's experiences of sexual health, and to identify how care and support can be tailored to promote sexual well-being after childbirth.

METHODS

We conducted an inductive qualitative study based on individual interviews with twenty women who had given birth in Sweden within the previous two years. Data were analysed using Braun and Clarke's reflexive thematic analysis. The resulting themes were subsequently interpreted through Sara Ahmed's queer phenomenology.

FINDINGS: One overarching theme, Reorienting to sexual health after childbirth, described how participants viewed their sexual health as a process of adapting to physical, emotional, and relational changes rather than returning to pre-pregnancy experiences. Four sub-themes were identified: (1) Reviving desire in a changed body (2), Living with the impact of the childbirth experience (3), Balancing parental and sexual identity, and (4) Navigating postpartum sexual health without support. Participants generally perceived healthcare support after childbirth as inadequate, as it reinforced this narrow framing through a focus on contraceptive counselling and readiness for intercourse rather than sexual health more broadly. Drawing on queer phenomenology, healthcare support appeared to be shaped by heteronormative assumptions, while women re-oriented their sexual health after childbirth both within and beyond heteronormative sexual norms.

CONCLUSION

Postpartum sexual health should be addressed as a broader aspect of well-being rather than being reduced to contraceptive needs or the resumption of intercourse. Care should be individualised, acknowledge variations in desire and intimacy, and ensure that persistent symptoms and concerns receive appropriate assessment and support.