Ashley Graham Says Pregnant Women Should Be More Open About Sex

Model and soon-to-be mom Ashley Graham has never kept her opinions to herself, so it's not entirely surprising when she opened up to Vogue about being pregnant, she didn't hesitate to bring up the topic of sex. She told the magazine — she snagged one of the four January covers — that she asked her friends all about their experiences with sex while pregnant to get ideas and share her own suggestions.

Graham spoke about how different sex while pregnant was from what she was used to. She told Vogue that she knew it was normal for a person's sex drive to change, but she never really gave any thought to how sex itself would change after she started to grow.

"I feel like every relationship goes in waves of sex," she said. "You're like, 'Hey, do we need to plan this?’ And now, with pregnancy, things have been really different."

She explained that talking about sex during pregnancy should be a normal topic of conversation, not something to be embarrassed about. All it takes is a talk, she said.

"Because there's this huge bulge that can be sensitive if you lay on it or go into a new position," she added. "I've been literally asking every single one of my friends who have had babies or who’re pregnant, like, 'What positions do you guys do?' This has to be a normal conversation among mothers."

Graham's lucky. She's got plenty of friends who've helped her, including pals Amy Schumer and Serena Williams. She says that moms are generally very open to helping one another and her stylist, Jordan Foster, told her to seek out pregnant women to befriend.

"There's just this camaraderie. It's a secret society that I didn't know about," Graham said. "I was gaining weight rapidly. And I felt alone. And the one piece of advice that my stylist, Jordan Foster, gave me was, 'Make pregnant friends.' None of my friends were in relationships, let alone pregnant. And now I have nine pregnant friends."

Schumer and Williams told Vogue that they were happy to offer up advice, including things that they wished they knew themselves.

"I was like, 'Come over and I'll just tell you what I have learned and what I wish I knew,'" Schumer told Vogue. "'Cause it’s a lot. People are so in your face when you’re pregnant because they're so f—ing excited for you. And you don't get it. You can’t possibly get it. And then after you’ve had a baby you’re like, 'Oh, I get it!'"

"I text her anything that rolls off my mind," Williams said. "I was one of those people who wanted to know every ugly detail of what happens [...] down there [...] what happens everywhere. Like, why are my nipples so big a week into being pregnant? This makes no sense; the baby doesn't need to eat yet. I wanted to know every single thing, and I still love talking about it."