Background & aim: Women's emotional relationships with their spouses can be influenced by adverse sexual performance during pregnancy. A spouse's supportive behavior toward pregnancy and his emotional response play a pivotal role in maintaining his pregnant wife’s mental well-being. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between sexual activity and response with the spouses’ emotional response to pregnancy.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, cluster sampling was employed to select 265 pregnant women having a healthy singleton pregnancy within 16–24 weeks in January to Agust 2024. The Raj Sexual Activity and Response Questionnaire and the Kazemi Emotional Reaction to Pregnancy Questionnaire were used to collect data on a self-report basis. ANOVA, paired t-tests, Pearson correlation coefficients, and linear regression were utilized for data analysis in SPSS Statistics 22.
Results: Before pregnancy, 79.6% of women showed sexual activity and response at satisfactory to excellent levels. However, this figure declined to 40.4% after pregnancy, with the mean scores for sexual activity and response scores falling from 63.86±19.51 pre-pregnancy to44.88±14.31 post-pregnancy (P<0.001). Additionally, the mean emotional response score of the spouse was recorded as 52.35±21.31. There was a positive, significant correlation between women’s sexual activity and response and the spouses’ emotional response (P=0.001, r=0.202).
Conclusion: The spouse's emotional response was positively associated with the mother's sexual activity and response. The results can be used to develop a pregnancy counseling program to establish safe marital environments and relationships, helping women with psychological stress.