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Milking It…
Katie and I were discussing something she saw on Dr. Phil today about these parents that were raising their daughter‚Äîage 1 or 2‚Äîas a Vegan. I think we both agreed that it’s a dumb idea, especially since they won’t get the kid vaccinated, because of the animal proteins, etc. So the kid is small for her age and if she gets sick, her immune system won’t be able to fight it off. Go Vegans.
Anyhow, the mother is still breastfeeding and found out she’s pregnant again. This brought us to another topic when Katie asked “Since when can you get pregnant while you’re still breastfeeding.” My response was that “I thought you could get pregnant every nine months”. To which Katie responded, “Actually if you are breastfeeding you can’t get pregnant until you stop breastfeeding for awhile. That’s actually a type of birth control in countries where they don’t have medicinal birth control or condoms.” So I looked it up:
Question: Can I conceive while nursing?
Answer: Yes. There’s an old wives’ tale that says you can’t get pregnant while breastfeeding ‚Äî but it’s not backed up by science or women’s experience.
Although you may not menstruate for months after giving birth, your body usually releases its first postpartum egg before you get your period. So you won’t know you’ve ovulated until two weeks later ‚Äî when you menstruate. So if you know you don’t want to get pregnant while nursing, begin using birth control as soon as you start having sex again.
Many doctors recommend barrier methods such as condoms or a diaphragm, but some think the newerlow-dose oral contraceptives are safe to use while breastfeeding and pose no harm to the baby. Ask your doctor about the “mini-Pill,” which doesn’t contain estrogen (a hormone that can interfere with lactation), only progestin.
That said, if you’re breastfeeding your baby exclusively, day and night, you may not menstruate again for up to a year after giving birth. If your baby sleeps through the night at an early age, your period will likely return sooner ‚Äî typically within three to eight months. The same is true if you’re supplementing with formula. In other words, the more often your baby nurses, the longer it may be before you get your period again. Experts believe this is because breastfeeding curbs the hormones that trigger ovulation. But remember, you could start ovulating again at any time and you probably won’t know when it happens. If you want to make sure you don’t get pregnant, use some form of birth control every time you have sex.
Basically you’re taking a chance if you believe you can’t get pregnant while breastfeeding. I went to a message board with about a hundred women talking about how they have 3, 5, 7, 8 month olds and just found out their pregnant. One lady has a 7 week old, is breastfeeding and just found out she’s pregnant. They’re all surprised and believed they couldn’t get pregant.
So, the moral of the story is to either go without or make sure Jack is wearing his raincoat before he ventures out. 🙂
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2 Responses to 'Milking It…'
I wonder how common it REALLY is to get knocked up again while you’re breastfeeding. I mean, obviously it’s happening, because people are talking about it, but you can’t really extrapolate a general frequency from a discussion board on the internets. Too bad I have absolutely no desire to research this any further and get an actual statistic. 🙂
Yeah, it’s not exactly a scientific poll or anything. I’m sure someone actually did the research, so it’s probably out there somewhere. The point is that an old wives tale is leading people to believe that they can use a recent pregnancy as a contraceptive.
Scary for those uneducated people out there on welfare who keep popping out kids every few months. Ugh.