How Can I Tell If Breastfeeding Is Stopping Me Getting Pregnant?
November 21, 2009 by admin
Filed under Breast Feeding Supplies
Is there tests that can be done or signs?
Answers of ’stop breastfeeding’ not welcome!
Thankyou.
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How To Choose The Gender Of Your Baby
Good for you for continuing to breastfeed!
If you are already charting your basal body temperature and fertility signs (hooray!), you know whether or not you are ovulating. It sounds like you are – which is good! – but your luteal phase does sound a little short.
The best thing to do would be to schedule a visit with your OB/GYN or midwife to ask about your options. I know that there are progesterone treatments that help lengthen your luteal phase, but I’m not aware of their compatibility with breastfeeding. Your medical caregiver will be able to answer this for you!
But to specifically answer your question – breastfeeding can prevent ovulation and thus prevent conception, but because you know you are ovulating I would say that breastfeeding is NOT preventing you from conceiving.
Good luck!
Well there really isnt a fool proof way to tell. I can say though that many women do get pregnant while breastfeeding.
I had not even gotten my period back yet while breastfeeding my 7 month old twins and I got pregnant again!
You can try to track your basal body temp to see if you are ovulating (which you can ovulate without getting your period, ovulation occurs first!) Little spikes in your BBT can signify ovulation. But the hormonal ovulation tests are likely to be a bit off because you are breastfeeding.
There isn’t a way to tell if breast feeding is hindering pregnancy….everyone is different. However, our bodies tend to know if they can handle both a pregnancy and breast feeding…..those that can…get pregnant. Therefore, I would make sure you are taking prenatal vitamins, eating well and taking good care of yourself….good luck!
Well if your trying to get pregnant, it is highly unlikely when you are breastfeeding, but still is possible. You most likely will have to wait until you stop breastfeeding the little one
Good luck
well..i think its just a coincidence dat ure not gettin pregnant..coz i dont think dere is any connection wid breast feeding and pregnancy…plz visit ure gynacologist she can help u more wid dis issue
< !PEACE!>
Yes, as long as you nurse according to the rules of natural child spacing. The same hormones that make milk suppress the release of reproductive hormones. While breastfeeding full-time most mothers do not ovulate and do not have menstrual periods. This means that you can’t get pregnant, at least for a while. It’s as if your body is telling you, “Nourishing one baby is all you can handle at the moment. It’s too soon for a sibling.”
“How reliable is breastfeeding as a natural contraceptive?”
You have to follow the rules of the game to get the full benefit of breastfeeding’s effect on fertility. In the last ten years, lactation researchers have developed the lactational amenorrhea method of family planning, called LAM. Research shows that LAM’s effectiveness in preventing pregnancy is better than 98 percent, a figure that compares well with artificial methods of birth control. According to LAM, a mother can rely on breastfeeding for protection from pregnancy if she can answer “no” to the following questions:
Have your menstral cycles returned?
Are you supplementing regularly or allowing long periods without breastfeeding, either during the day (more than three hours) or at night (more than six hours)?
Is your baby more than six months old?
Studies have shown that most mothers who are breastfeeding exclusively remain infertile for more than the six-month period covered by LAM. Ovulation and menstruation return only when the baby starts to nurse less often and prolactin levels fall.
4 TIPS FOR USING BREASTFEEDING TO DELAY OVULATION
Practice unrestricted breastfeeding without regard to schedules. Usually six to eight breastfeedings a day will suppress ovulation.
Don’t train your baby to sleep through the night. (The milk-making hormones that suppress ovulation are highest between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m.) Nighttime nursing is important to the suppression of fertility. Sleeping with your baby facilitates unrestricted feeding at night.
All of baby’s sucking should be at the breast, for comfort as well as food. Avoid the use of supplemental bottles and pacifiers.
Delay the introduction of solid foods until age six months or later. Solids should provide additional nutrition, not substitute for breastfeedings.
The key to using breastfeeding to delay the return of fertility is frequency of breastfeedings. Because prolactin clears so rapidly from the blood, frequent feedings are necessary to keep it high enough to suppress ovulation. As baby nurses less frequently, prolactin levels fall, reproductive hormones rise, and fertility returns.
If you follow these rules, you may enjoy a period of lactation amenorrhea (no menstrual periods) that lasts thirteen to sixteen months. In fact, research has shown that women who practice natural mothering according to the above rules will average 14.5 months without a period following childbirth. Remember, this is only an average. A few mothers will experience a return of menstrual periods by six months, others not until two or three years.
When menstrual periods return, the first one is often anovulatory, meaning that it is not preceded by ovulation (the release of an egg), and thus you could not have gotten pregnant before this first period. However, about 5 percent of women do ovulate before having their first period, and the longer you have gone without having periods, the more likely this is to happen. Thus it’s possible to become pregnant while breastfeeding, even if you are not menstruating. Once your periods resume, you should assume that it is possible for you to get pregnant, and you should take precautions if you don’t want to add another child to your family in the near future. This might be a good time to learn about natural family planning methods, which enable you to determine exactly when you are ovulating and could become pregnant. Or you may decide to use another method of birth control as breastfeeding’s effect on your fertility fades. See Couple to Couple League International at http://www.CCLI.org.
Sometimes women who are nursing older babies or toddlers want to get pregnant and find this difficult while they are breastfeeding. The baby’s nursing may continue to affect a woman’s fertility even after her periods have returned. This can be very frustrating. Sometimes getting the toddler to cut back a bit on breastfeeding, especially at night, can make it possible for mother to conceive.