Pregnant Pleasure Uncovered- Talk at Royal Society of Medicine

I'm giving a talk on sexuality in pregnancy on 26th February 2010.  I hope to see you there!  http://www.rsm.ac.uk/academ/sea02.php

Here's the abstract:

TITLE SEXUAL PLEASURE UNCOVERED, EXPLORING THE MYTHS AND LEGENDS AROUND SEXUALITY IN PREGNANCY.

After almost two decades of supporting couples through the transition to parenthood, Rachel Foux, author, psychosexual therapist and maternity sexual educator will uncover the myths and taboos that so often blind couples and health practitioners, from engaging with this significant time in their sexual relationship.

Rachel will demonstrate, that despite research, very little has changed over the last decades to promote sexual pleasure, sexual health or sexual satisfaction in pregnancy and beyond.

Rachel will challenge the current systemic support for the couple’s sexual satisfaction within the context of family life and the impact that relationship breakdown and/or long-term sexual dysfunction bring to the stability of the family. 

Rachel will present simple actions to improve sexual communication between pregnant couples and which could inevitably result in increased sexual satisfaction. 

Rachel is a passionate advocate of sexuality in pregnancy; she firmly believes that if health practitioners could unify their attitude and approach to this compelling subject, then legends could be made.  As unfortunately to date, there are no legends relating to sexual pleasure in pregnancy.

NCT TUTORS COME TO PREGNANCY SEX STUDY DAY IN HERTFORDSHIRE

Last month, I was delighted to host a second study day for NCT tutors/consellors/students in Weston. 

 More than 10 ladies came from antenatal, postnatal and breast feeding groups around the south east and together we enjoyed a busy day, surrounded by Katie's Women in their Fullness art collection.

I was joined by Fiona Barlow (NCT tutor) in presenting an interactive and stimulating day.  Our aim was to increase the teacher's comfort and confidence in supporting clients with their sex and relationships, through and beyond pregnancy.

The most common concern was not having enough or accurate information, next was getting over the feeling of discomfort in their groups whenever sex is mentioned.  

We overcame the concern about information by recommending that they seek alliances with local midwives/obstetricians/women's physiotherapists as well as internet research and brainstormed icebreakers for introducing 'talk about sex'.  Knowing where and who to sign post onto, incase of clients presenting with problems beyond the scope of the group, was also highlighted, as was the need for same sex groups to answer often 'embarrasing' questions.

The feedback from this day was excellent and I am so excitied that there are more front line practitioners out there, helping mums and dads to deal with the challenges that this time of transition brings to their relationship.

Great work girls!  Roll on the next group!

Women in their Fullness Exhibition

Women in their Fullness, an exhibition of pregnant nudes by erotic artist Katie Sarra, will be opening next week (18th December) at our Park Studio in Weston, Hertfordshire.

We will be celebrating this opening with seasonal mulled wine and mince pies from 6pm.
All are welcome.

This collection represents examples of Katie's passion for painting pregnant women, much of her original work now hangs on the walls of women she has painted in and around her studio Devon.  Katie will be offering the opportunity to painted here in Hertfordshire from 2010.

Here is Katie's description of this incredible project.

Women in their fullness is a celebration and exploration in paint that witnesses, honors and marks in time the potency and submission to nature of pregnancy. I am exploring with pregnant women a new mirroring of how they feel about their changing body shape and the changes within. I am painting women at different stages of their pregnancy developing relationships with them that facilitate a record in paint of their journeys towards motherhood. How women feel about their bodies in relation to external and internal ideals. How pregnant women are seen in our culture will be mirrored in this exhibition. This could be a transformational experience as their bodies sexual visibility transforms into a celebration of fertility. These paintings mirror women through this transition and mark this rite of passage.

“instead of thinking that your body is going to change and you are going to lose something, Katie embraced and accepted the beauty of what it has become. katie helped me lose inhibitions and having an out of body experience of seeing your self from the outside is different to how you feel from the inside.”

Sex in Pregnancy. Why the silent subject?

Back in November, I chaired an educational seminar on behalf of BASEuk.org (The British Association of Sexual Educators) in Stevenage, on the silent subject of sex and relationships during and beyond pregnancy.

This break through meeting, which was part of a series of seminars organized by BASE to encourage health professionals to be more active and confident in discussing sex with their clients, was well attended by a broad range of midwives, student midwives, women's health physiotherapists, doulas and psychosexual therapist.  The morning was alive with discussion  and the feedback from delegates has been outstanding.

The success of this meeting was much thanks to our high caliber speakers, who passionately took up this often ignored subject and kept us entertained and educated about how we can best help our pregnant clients with their sex and relationship issues during this time of transition.

Gill Brook, women's health physiotherapist from Bradford, gave an informative talk about the relevance of pelvic floor exercises during pregnancy and their impact on sexual function.  Fiona Barlow, nct tutor from Middlesex, transported us from the bedroom to the birthing room, highlighting the need for intimacy and tenderness during pregnancy to flow into birth.  Susan Quillian, relationship psychologist, agony aunt and author, gave us a reassuring and informative take on sexual positions and alternative lovemaking styles for pregnancy.  Mr Rami Atalla, local consultant obstetrician and gynecologist, addressed the many myths surrounding sex in pregnancy and gave invaluable and humorous advice about how to overcome these with clients.

We broke the morning with a thirty minute coffee break, which created a lively hub of discussion and networking with delegates, speakers and exhibitors.  We were fortunate to have representatives from epi-no and premier med in attendance with their pelvic floor products, as well as information from other pro pregnancy sexual health organizations, like fun factory and yes lubricant.

In conclusion, this was a very enjoyable and productive meeting and we hope to able to share footage/talks from this in 2010, especially for the many people who expressed an interest but couldn't attend.  We also plan to run another seminar in 2010, perhaps in Cambridge and with the opportunity of attending an afternoon workshop.

 I am personally excited about the potential that these seminars have to raise awareness about sex in pregnancy and to offer practical tools to front line practitioners.  I believe that as a nation, we could do so much more to support couples through this time, either through intervention or sign posting and the over riding message for me, is that we must no longer ignore this life impacting subject.

PS - NEXT PREGNANT SEX SILENT WITNESS - 10AM MAY 8TH CAMBRIDGE - BOOKINGS CONTACT -MANOLEE.SHANKAR@BASEUK.ORG