[metmom]

Actually, those verses don’t support that sex happened after the fall.

God said that the man and woman would be one flesh, and that happens in sex.

There’s simply no reason to believe that they didn’t have it until after the fall.

All that really does is contribute to the concept that sex is wrong somehow, that it’s not pleasing to God, who created it in the first place.

And if sex is just for procreation, He could have very well had women go into heat. If He didn’t mean for husband and wife to enjoy it, He wouldn’t have given them the desire for it that far outstrips a woman’s ability to conceive, even with the increased conception that was part of the result of the fall.

[wagglebee]

They were clearly referred to as one flesh before the Fall. I think that many get the impression because it's at the beginning of chapter three, that the Fall happened almost immediately after Eve's creation; however, they probably spent some time in the Garden before the Fall.

Also, a careful reading of Genesis 3:16 indicates that Eve MIGHT have already experienced childbirth (to "multiply" the pain suggests that she might have had unpainful or less painful childbirth). However, most believe that Cain and Abel were the first children and they certainly seem to have been born after the Fall.