[Mrs. Don-o]

I wonder about all this, too. Recent research seems to indicate that vaginal sex while pregnant tends to protect against pregnancy-related hypertension and pre-eclampsia They "say" oral sex might be protective too: seems to be a matter of absorbing proteins from the husband's semen which modify the immune response to the baby in a good way, though it seems doubtful to me in terms of oral: would such proteins get past the digestive process? Really ???

As for breastfeeding, if you do it on-demand and especially at night by co-sleeping with the baby, isn't that supposed to keep the mother anovulatory for 18 months+? If the nursing moms are as anovulatory as they ought to be, sex in any form shouldn't matter, because the lactational effect will prevent too-closely-spaced pregnancies. The #1 priority would be to keep the moms well-nourished and well-hydrated so the lactation benefit is optimal. Or so it seems to me.

But you're the doc. What do you think?

[LadyDoc]

those studies are a bunch of nonsense, usually based on tiny samples that don’t represent the majority of patients.

They also assume that eclampsia/preeclampsia is purely an immune problem, but the syndrome has several variations...and is more common in areas where people are malnourished or high risk: women having first babies have a higher rate, as do women with high blood pressure or with twins.