Relations Between Non-Maternity and Female Sexuality: An Integrative Review of the Scientific Literature

Abstract

The female sexuality was anchored, during decades, in the cultural stereotypes that assume that the conjugal sex life was unnecessary as soon as the woman accomplished the procreator function. This study aimed to present an integrative review of scientific literature regarding how non-maternity interferes with female sexuality. The method was based on the search for complete articles in the databases/libraries LILACS, PePSIC and SciELO, published in Portuguese from January 2012 to November 2017. The articles had to contribute to answer the guiding question: How does not maternity interferes in female sexuality? We retrieved 19 articles for analysis and the results show that 15 are empirical studies that used quantitative and qualitative approaches. There seems to be a less traditional sexual role identity in voluntarily childless women. Giving visibility to motherhood and non-motherhood is an equally important movement, opening up possibilities for reading and constructing less conservative sexual and affective scripts that are embedded in a restrictive, punitive and inflexible logic, which must be permanently captured by the literature of the area.

Keywords

• comportamento materno
• gravidez
• sexualidade
• feminismo