Breastfeeding and Sex? Can you help?

Question

Hi I have a three month old daughter that I am exculisively breastfeeding. My question is I started birth control 6 weeks post partum but I have too many mood swings with it so I have decided to stop taking it. my question is with my breastfeeding what are my chances of getting pregnant. I want to wait until she is at least a year before I even get pregnant agian. Yes this is my first baby. ALso did breastfeeding help you lose weight? I haven't seen it hekp me yet. what do you think? Thanks!

Answer 1

Breatsfeeding is in NO WAY birth control. See if you can wear the patch, I didnt research it myself. A lot of times what makes you sick with BCP is when it hits your stomach, with this they dont. I became pregnatn with my third child when my second was 10 months and breatfed with very few solids.

Answer 2

My Ob told me that it is a myth that if you are breastfeeding you can't get pg. Breastfeeding takes away your period but it doesn't mean that you are not ovulating. You have to talk to your OB to find a good birth control method that works for you. So if you don't use protection your chances are pretty high, so be careful.
Regarding your other question, yes breastfeeding made me lose around 40 pounds in the first 4 months!! I gained too much weight but I lost it almost all by bf. I still have 9 pounds to go. I just ate right (protein, vegetables, fruit, lots of water) and cut down on carbs and sweets.

Answer 3

Breastfeeding will suppress ovulation but since, by the time you start periods again you have already ovulated, it is not a reliable method of birth control. You MUST use something else if you don't want to get pregnant again yet. What about condoms? It is only for a relatively short time, isn't it?

I lost weight while breastfeeding but put it back on after I stopped :-(

Answer 4

Your chances of pregnancy depend on your ovulatory patterns, which may or may not be affected by nursing. I nursed exclusively with all three of my kids, and I started ovulating 3 weeks postpartum with my first, 6 weeks postpartum with my second and 9 MONTHS postpartum with my third.

Track your ovulatory patterns, and you'll know when you're likely to get pregnant. Avoid copulation during ovulatory times, and you reduce your chances to about nil. I have not use any form of artificial birth control since my youngest was born 3.5 years ago, and I've not been pregnant once. You just have to know your own body's signs of ovulation.

There are very scientific methods of learning this. Check out the Creighton Model, which is great for most breastfeeding women.

Answer 5

Breastfeeding is NOT birth control!!!!
You can and will get pregnant again if you're not careful!!!
I am also breastfeeding my daughter, she's 6 months old.
It brought me back down to pre-pregnancy weight quick, but it's been up and down since then. Darn it! I wish it would just keep taking the weight off as long as you're breastfeeding. Doesn't work like that.

Answer 6

Yes, breastfeeding does help you lose weight, actually it helps your uterus shrink back to it's normal size, as for the pill, i heard it could reduce your milk production, that's why i haven't been on the pill. I'm nursing twins and I've almost returned to pre-preg size, there's always going to be an extra 10 or so pounds when you nurse because you need some extra fat to produce milk, so don't expect to lose all the weight while nursing, Good luck, and congrats for choosing to nurse, your doing wonders for your baby

Answer 7

my doc told me the chances are as good as birth control when you are exclusively breastfeeding, but I have similarly heard not to rely on it...

BFing helped me get to pre-pregnancy weight really quickly - in a week or so, but there has been nothing more than that since. Dammit.