After months of anticipation, the newest member of your family arrives. And although you've waited for what seems like an eternity to see what color eyes or hair he would have, there is another event you've equally longed for: the return to physical intimacy with your partner.

"I was so looking forward to meeting this little person I'd shared a body with for so long that I completely forgot about that part," says Rita Moore*, a social worker from New York.

But sex was a main concern for her husband. At her first postpartum appointment, his primary question was: "When can we have sex again?"

"I was a little surprised about that," she says. "I think it was because I was more interested in seeing my toes again than anything as far as my body was concerned."

Most OB/GYNs and midwives advise a physical wait -- ranging anywhere from six to eight weeks -- after the baby's birth before resuming intercourse. But this figure is a guideline, not an etched-in-stone rule, according to Tori Kropp, a prenatal and baby expert in San Francisco, Calif., who specializes in women's and maternal/child health.

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