His Penis Won't Poke The Baby, But Here's What You *Need* To Know About Pregnancy Sex

In Sex and the City, when pregnant Miranda and friend Carrie are walking down the sidewalk, Miranda tells Carrie she desperately wants to have sex. But she has concerns. First, she wonders if it’s OK to have sex with one man while you’re pregnant with another man’s baby. Second, she asks Carrie if all that poking could shake the baby lose, and if the man is "huge," could his penis “dent” the baby? “Where do you think dimples come from?” Carrie replies. So can his penis poke the baby in the head during pregnancy sex? It probably won't cause dimples, but it is something people are truly concerned about.

Thankfully, your baby cannot be poked by your partner’s penis during sex. “The baby is protected from the penis during intercourse by a few factors,” Dr. Jamil Abdur-Rahman, an OB-GYN and medical travel blogger along with his twin brother for TwinDoctorsTV, tells Romper. He says your cervix “serves as a solid barrier” and it sits between your vagina and the baby. The uterus is where your baby is growing. “Secondly, sitting within the uterus, the baby is protected by very thick, very strong muscles. In fact, the uterus is for all intents and purposes just one big muscle. Furthermore, sitting within the uterus, the baby is additionally protected by the bag of water that surrounds it,” Abdur-Rahman says. This “bag of water” has layers of protective membrane covering, which “envelops” your baby, he explains. And then there’s also the amniotic fluid to consider. “Floating within this fluid, the baby is basically swimming in a weightless environment that protects him or her from any trauma or outside forces that might be applied to the uterus. So in short, a baby cannot be poked by the penis during sex,” Abdur-Rahman says.

But does the baby feel sex at all? Abdur-Rahman says the baby still very likely doesn’t feel much while “in utero.” Again, this is because the baby is protected by your cervix, your “muscular” uterus, and the membrane water and amniotic fluid. Turns out, the baby’s environment is like “a very dark, very quiet, sensory deprivation tank.”

But, Abdur Rahman says, “At most, the baby might notice some ‘waves’ forming in the amniotic fluid if a woman has an orgasm. During and following an orgasm, a woman might have very minor contractions. With these contractions, slight pressure can be applied to the bag of water.” It would be similar to applying a slight pressure to a water balloon, Abdur-Rahman explains. The pressure “might cause the water within that balloon to move back and forth and create waves, so too might small uterine contractions during and after an orgasm create very subtle waves. These waves will not disturb the baby in any way.”

Having sex while pregnant, for most women, is perfectly safe — for you and your baby's head and body — though there are some exceptions, according to Abdur-Rahman. Women who have “placenta previa,” women who have had preterm labor during pregnancy, or women who have had a premature rupture of membranes should not have sex. A “premature rupture of membranes” means their bag of water has broken earlier than normal.

According to Abdur-Rahman, “Placenta Previa is a condition where the placenta is lying over or covering the cervix. Normally, the placenta attaches to the front, to the back, or to the top of the uterus, far away from the cervix. However, when the placenta is lying over the cervix, it can be traumatized by the penis during sex." Since the cervix serves as a barrier between the vagina and the uterus, during sex, “the cervix takes a bit of a beating. If the repetitive force applied to the cervix by the penis as it moves in and out of the vagina is significant enough, the placenta can become detached from the cervix. This can lead to massive, at times even life-threatening, bleeding that endangers both mother and baby.”

As far as women who have had preterm labor, the prostaglandins from the sperm can stimulate the uterus to contract, and you don’t want to stimulate your uterus even further. “Again, in someone who has already suffered from preterm labor in a pregnancy, any further excessive uterine activity is undesirable,” Abdur-Rahman says.

So enjoy having sex with your partner during pregnancy, barring any of those three pregnancy complications. Your partner won’t “dent” the baby or give them dimples with their penis. And in most cases, having sex while pregnant is perfectly safe, as long as you’re able to move around and enjoy it. Remember, those second trimester orgasms are the best. You’re welcome.