AFTER THE POSTNATAL EXAMINATION – PREVENTING PREGNANCY

Just as contraceptive advice at six weeks may be too late to prevent pregnancy in some women, for others it will be too early to find a method of contraception that will suit. Particularly when intercourse has not been resumed, the woman’s change in feelings about her sexuality may not be apparent. As always, unless her feelings are understood her contraceptive needs are unlikely to be met.

For some women who have found the experience of childbirth intolerable, and the experience of looking after a small baby almost beyond their capacities, the fear of further pregnancy may not only dampen any sexual drive but make contraceptive choice extremely difficult. No method is ever considered safe enough, and for some even the use of several methods at the same time does not give them a feeling of security.

Tobert has also described those women for whom all the physical and emotional functions of femininity are intolerable. Painful menstruation, premenstrual tension and frigidity are succeeded by difficult pregnancy and delivery. Later there may be a demand for sterilization, hysterectomy or relief from the unbearable symptoms of the menopause. Often referring to their mother or grandmother as having suffered in the same way, their femininity is seen as an unhappy heirloom handed down through the generations.

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