Hello. I am 9 weeks pregnant, and definitely not menstruating at this time. This is my first pregnancy and I’ve been married for 5 months.

This past Shabbos, my husband and I intercourse. Immediately afterwards, I went to the bathroom. I observed about 1/2 a teaspoon of blood in the toilet with my urine, and more blood on the toilet paper. The next day (Sunday) I felt discomfort in my vagina all day, like bruising. But I didn’t see any more blood after the initial sighting. By Monday the discomfort was gone, too. I don’t usually experience any discomfort or bleeding associated with sex.

I spoke to my midwife on Monday, and she told me that, during pregnancy, I will experience greater vascularization and blood flow inside my vagina, and that sexual intercourse is much more likely to cause lesions and bleeding at this time.

If this kind of bleeding makes me niddah, then I would anticipate a situation where every time I have sex, I’ll bleed a little afterwards. Potentially, every single time I have intercourse during pregnancy, I will become niddah. It’s not practical to go the mikvah each time I have sex (I travel an hour each way to get there, and work late in the evening), and so, I’d probably abstain from sex instead.

According to your website, vaginal bleeding due to trauma (dam makkah) does not render a woman niddah. But according to my husband, the blood in this situation is zavah ketanah and does render me niddah. However, it seems from your glossary that zavah ketanah can only be uterine blood. I believe that this is blood from the vaginal wall – I did feel bruising in my vagina, after all.

As such, I have the following questions:

1) Am I niddah?
2) Do I need to undergo a physical examination by a doctor or midwife to determine if I’m niddah, or is it enough to trust my midwife’s determination that the bleeding was due to injury during sex, and not due to menstruation?

Could you please help me resolve this situation?