The original post on this quoted a nurse (? I think) who said 'certain
segments' of the population or something like that, didn't wait 6 weeks to
resume sexual intercourse, and this was a problem, apparently because the
women might already be pregnant again, next time they had contact with the
health services.

I had a disturbing feeling that the nurse's values may have been at odds
with those of the 'certain segment', as it was not at all evident that the
women in question had any qualms about getting pregnant again, but it seemed
it bothered the health care professional.

It isn't up to any of us to decide when anyone else should or should not get
pregnant, or give birth.  We can, and do, have our opinions about what is
optimal from a health perspective, both for mother and baby, and about what
is optimal from a world perspective, for all of us, and we still do not have
the right to decide that someone else's plans are inappropriate, or should
be modified.

I am not saying we shouldn't have our opinions.  I am most certainly not
saying women should be denied access to a full spectrum of reproductive
health services.  Regardless of who they are, how much they can pay and
where they live in the world, I want women to have this, and I would love
for them all to be literate too.  I am saying that I believe rather
ferociously in self-determination for all peoples, including women whose
child spacing does not match my own ideal.

That said, the 6 week 'quarantine rule' is indeed a ritualistic remnant
without scientific basis.  My personal very strong bias is that both parties
should be interested, and that the woman should have veto rights, but there
is nothing magic about 42 days, and when women are not injured in the course
of giving birth it is not abnormal for them to resume their usual sex
practices much sooner.

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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