Hi I am 26 weeks pregnant and had a little spotting on Tuesday. The on at the hospital said tgat everything looks fine but that I should not go to work for a few days, no exercise and no intercourse. I haven't had any spotting since then. My question is when can I have sex again?

Sex commonly causes spotting as the cervix is highly vascular during pregnancy and when manipulated either through intercourse, a lot of walking or exercise, or whenever your doctor/nurse/midwife does a cervical exam to see if you are dilating.

As long as the spotting is not bright red and enough to fill a pad in two or more hours, and no cramping, all should be fine.

I usually tell my patients to wait about a few days to a week to make sure all spotting has ceased before having intercourse again.

If this happens again, and you should go to the hospital, just ask your nurse when it would be okay to resume intercourse.

Hi I should also add that the blood was bright red and I had not had sex in over 48 hours from the bleeding. The doctors Sid my placenta is not low lying and deemed the incident as unexplainable spotting.

Let me see if I understand you.

You had sex then you spotted 48 hours later?

I had sex on sun morning and had a bit of spotting on tues evening. The sex did not happen right before the spotting.