COLUMBUS, OH — Women throughout the world have long hoped… or worried… that intercourse late in their pregnancy might cause them to go into labor. A recent study has dashed those hopes… or reassured those fears… depending upon the situation.In fact, according to D. Jonathan Schaffir, author of a paper on the subject to be published in the June issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology and assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Ohio State University in Columbus, women who are sexually active during the final three weeks of their pregnancies are more likely to deliver ever-so-slightly later than their less frisky sisters.

Shaffir’s research studied 93 pregnant women and found that the sexually active mothers-to-be averaged delivery after 39.9 weeks of pregnancy, as compared to 39.3 weeks for those who abstained. That’s a four day difference. In other words, as Shaffir sees it, “Sexual activity didn’t have an effect.”

Other medical experts agree, but also opine that the study never really answered the question – and that it’s likely the question doesn’t need to be answered at all. Instead, as Dr. Victor Hugo Gonzalez-Quintero, director of Maternal Fetal Medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine states, “What patients need to know is that sexual activity is acceptable in most of the typical patients, all the way to term.”

While this is certainly true, a recent survey showed that 73.6-percent of pregnant women questioned were aware of the old wives’ tale, with nearly half of them believing it. Although it’s not true, Shaffir says that it’s not a theory without merit.

“Semen contains prostaglandin, which is a hormone that is in commercially prepared medications that we use to induce labor. So, there is a thought that maybe sex is doing the same thing as commercial preparations. Also, maternal orgasm is associated with contractions.”

Slightly less than half of the women involved in Shaffir’s study had sex during the final weeks of their pregnancies, which is a higher number than he says have been reported in previous studies.

Although the results of this study are not the final word on the subject, according to Shaffir, women can be assured that “in a low-risk population, having sex at the end of pregnancy is safe and very commonly performed.”