Watch: The lies we tell pregnant women about sex

Representative image (Source: Getty Images)

Pregnant women are always told to take a lot of precautions, like abstaining from sex, for instance, with a baby in the womb. But sex researcher Sofia Jawed-Wessel says, “When we tell women that sex isn’t worth the risk during pregnancy, what we’re telling her is that her sexual pleasure doesn’t matter…that she in fact doesn’t matter.”

In an eye-opening Ted Talk, Wessel points out how we usually divorce a pregnant woman from her sexual needs and desires, and typically picture her as a manifestation of fertility–round belly and large breasts–with the woman merely becoming an object of reproduction, depriving her of agency. “She’s denied basic privacy and bodily autonomy under the guise of ‘be a good mother’. We don’t trust her to make her own decisions,” says Wessel.

While questioning the representation of pregnant women, Wessel also busts myths around sex during pregnancy. “Pregnant women are not faceless, identity-less vessels of reproduction who can’t stand on their own two feet. But the truth is, the real secret is, we tell all women that their sexual pleasure doesn’t matter. We refuse to even acknowledge that women who have sex with women or women who don’t want children even exist,” she says.

Watch the video here: