New Study Proves Men Are Naturally Attracted to Pregnant Women

Although you might not always feel sexy during pregnancy, a new study suggests some men may actually be more attracted to pregnant women.

Pregnancy is a beautiful experience, but it can also leave many expectant mothers feeling vulnerable and self-conscious about their changing bodies. However, for some men, pregnant women are a turn-on.

The Study 

A study done in 2011 put together by a team of Italian and Swedish doctors and published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine turned to online fetish groups to present a questionnaire about sexual preferences for sexual and lactating women. 

The researchers behind the study set out to discover whether sexual preference for pregnant and/or lactating women may become sexually attractive in adulthood following exposure to pregnant or lactating women in infancy. This idea is called sexual imprinting, or that sexual preferences are determined early on in life, usually in childhood. Sexual imprinting is usually learned from the mother, especially for boys and men, and is how they learn to choose suitable mates in the future. 

Another piece of the study was what is more likely to make someone be more attracted to what, in this case, pregnant or lactating women, and the results might surprise you.

The Results 

It turns out that the link has a result to whether or not they are the older sibling and were exposed to a pregnant or lactating woman early in their lives.

The results conclusively showed that the more men were exposed to their mother being pregnant and/or breastfeeding between the ages of one-and-a-half and five years old, the more likely to develop a sexual attraction to pregnant and/or breastfeeding women they are. More importantly, this is largely developed in older siblings, with 66 percent of the 2000+ respondents having at least one younger sibling who have been exposed to maternal pregnancy and/or breastfeeding.

These results further back the idea of ‘sexual imprinting,’ a natural process where your future partner preferences are determined from a young age, in most cases based on a parent. Generally, this pregnant/lactating attraction is not discovered until the age of 18 or later, but is imprinted from a much younger age. 

In summary, children, especially boys, learn their sexual preferences and how to choose a mate in the future from their mothers. If mom is pregnant, pregnancy is attractive.  

It was also addressed that there was some overlap with Sigmund Freud’s “oedipal phase” concept, the stage of psychosexual development of children between the ages of three to six, although the development mechanism more aligns with sexual imprinting according to these survey results.

Other Possibilities

This study only offers one possible reason why some men are more attracted to pregnant women. Some other possibilities include: 

• Biology
• Hormonal changes
• Competition
• Jealousy
• A sense of responsibility 
• Nurturing aspects of pregnancy 
• Body changes
• Increased confidence level 
• Lifestyle changes

While all of these are possible and have been reported in other studies, none as conclusively as the sexual imprinting with an older sibling. 

The Conclusions

So what does this mean to women and their partners? You just might be able to predict how they’ll feel about you when you’re pregnant (especially if they happen to be the older sibling).