BIRMINGHAM, England, March 20 (UPI) -- In a recent British study, nearly one in three women experienced painful sexual intercourse up to a year after having a child.
Almost 500 women who had stayed in maternity units in Birmingham, England, participated in a self-administered questionnaire at least a year after their most recent birth. Of that number, 87 percent complained of at least one health problem, according to the study published in the Journal of Clinical Nursing.
Amanda Williams, a midwife at Birmingham's Perinatal Institute, said in a statement the most common problems were sex-related, followed by urinary incontinence.
Nineteen percent of the mothers who had Caesareans reported painful intercourse, followed by 34 percent who had a normal birth and 36 percent who had an instrument-assisted birth, according to Williams.
The study also found sex-related problems were highest among instrument-assisted births at 77 percent and lowest among Caesareans at 51 percent. Sixty-four percent of women having normal births reported at least one problem related to sex, Williams said.
