If you hear friends, or even celebrities saying they are having lots of post-birth sex, take it with a pinch of salt. I found it excruciatingly painful the first time my husband Bryn and I tried it, around six weeks after the birth of our daughter Delphi, who is now nine. Sex is the one thing you can fib about and no one will find out.
That first time, for me, the worst thing was that I had initiated the sex, because I wanted to feel a sense of normality in this new role as a mum – to feel like the person I had been before. It couldn’t have been further from the truth. At this point we had been together for six years, and pre-birth we had a happy, healthy sex life either weekly or fortnightly. The birth had been difficult. It was vaginal and after a long labour I had to have ventouse — an instrument that uses suction to attach a cup on to the baby’s head — then forceps, with episiotomy, which had left scarring. Still, I was so surprised at the pain during sex.
