"As you make your way
through a sexual lifetime, cultural attitudes about what it means
to be a woman and a mother are bound to influence or even inhibit
how you express yourself sexually. Let your experience be your
teacher, let your desires be your guide, and keep in mind that
both of these will be in constant flux throughout your life. Sometimes
you'll crave a three minute orgasm, sometimes you'll orchestrate
a three-hour symphony, and sometimes you'll want no genital activity
at all. What you yearn for today won't necessarily be what you
yearn for tomorrow, but each and every one of your desires has
something to teach you about who you are and who you're becoming"
- Anne Semans and Cathy Winks, authors of The
Mother's Guide to Sex
Exploring Womanhood's Intimacy Questions with Anne Semans & Cathy Winks
Authors of The Mother's Guide to Sex
Enjoying Your Sexuality Through All Stages of Motherhood
Review A woman's
sex life undergoes a sea of change from the moment she decides to have
a child. While her desire for a fulfilling sex life doesn't disappear,
it often gets buried under an avalanche of conflicting demands on time
and attention. In their new book, The
Mother's Guide to Sex: Enjoying Your Sexuality Through All Stages
of Motherhood (Three Rivers Press, April 2001), authors Anne
Semans and Cathy Winks have written a hip, humorous guide to combining
the joys of sex and motherhood. "It takes courage and determination
to challenge the cultural conditioning that mothers should practice
self-sacrifice rather than pursue their true sexual desires," explain
Semans and Winks. "This book gives mothers the inspiration and the means
to pursue a lifetime filled with sexual pleasure."
Until now, mothers
have received little sexual guidance beyond the occasional tidbit of
information from a kindly nurse, a relevant anecdote from an honest
friend, or a few pages on sexuality in pregnancy and parenting books.
Written with advice from medical and sex experts, and supported by advice
from more than 700 mothers who responded to the authors' survey, The
Mother's Guide to Sex delivers comprehensive information,
reassuring and encouraging women to explore their maternal sexuality.
By learning what changes to anticipate in their own sex lives and how
other women cope with these changes, readers can avoid common pitfalls
and discover how to increase their desire and enjoyment of sex.
ADVERTISEMENT
Divided into four
parts: Building Blocks of Sexuality, The ABC's of Becoming
a Mom, Reinventing Sex as a Parent, and Raising Sexually
Healthy Children, this is the essential manual every mother needs
as she renegotiates her relationship to her sexuality. The
Mother's Guide to Sex provides straight talk about sex during
pregnancy, surviving scarcity after birth, rekindling desire, dealing
with hormones, getting support, expanding your definition of sex, sex
when you have a baby, toddler, or teen, and other special concerns.
It offers honest answers to thorny questions asked by millions of mothers.
"It's been five years since we had our last child and we still don't
feel like having sex.what can we do?" "Can I use sex toys in my last
trimester?" "I'm a divorced mother with teenagers.how can I have a sex
life while keeping a lid on theirs?" The book's final section offers
tips on talking to your kids about sex, presenting age-appropriate sex
information, and modeling positive sexual behavior. Complete with a
resources section that guides readers to additional information, including
hundreds of websites, organizations, parenting groups, and hotlines,
The
Mother's Guide to Sex is essential reading for any mother
or mother-to-be.
About the Authors
Anne Semans and Cathy
Winks, authors of The New Good Vibrations Guide to Sex and The Woman's
Guide to Sex on the Web, have spent fifteen years writing and speaking
about sex. Both live in San Francisco.
