I'm nursing my son and plan to continue for a year if possible. I know that breastfeeding acts as a mild birth control, but that it's still possible to get pregnant. Anyone know HOW mild this birth control is? How can you tell if you're pregnant while nursing since you don't get your period for months and months so you wouldn't know if you missed? Will home pregnancy tests work? Has anyone had this experience?
You can get pregnant quite easily while nursing, especially after starting solids around 6 mos. Even if you breastfeed on demand or haven't seen the sign of your first period it's quite possible.
Without testing, which works just fine when nursing, you may not know. So unless you are trying to get pregnant, definitely use protection.
My best friend has now gotten pregnant twice while nursing. She has 3 girls aged 3,2, and 7 months. She also thought it was a form of birth control and the first time was a fluke because she was weaning her daughter. Both times she felt really tired (more than new mommies feel) and took pregnancy tests.
I got pregnant while nursing, my daughter was 7 months old. Even though I didn't have my period back, I noticed some of the early pregnancy signs and took a test. I've had good results with First Response tests. Found out at about 4.5 weeks with both kids.
I got pregnant while nursing, but I was 16 months postpartum and still hadn't gotten my period back and was actually trying to conceive (difficult to do if you haven't gotten your period!) So I was actually tracking my cervical mucous (read Taking Charge of Your Fertility, or even simply browse www.fertilityfriend.com for tips on this)and temperature at the time. I pinpointed my first postpartum ovulation with my temp charting and actually conceived our second child on that one, so I never got my period back between children. (and yay for that!!)
The stats on the birth control thing are that if:
1. You are less than 6 months postpartum
2. AND you haven't gotten your period back yet
3. AND you're exclusively breastfeeding (no solids, no formula)
it's about 98% effective. After any of these is no longer true you need to pay closer attention. The cervical mucous is really the best indicator of your fertility and if you're planning on using Natural Family Planning (aka Fertility Awareness Method, FAM) then you should get used to checking regularly. If you really REALLY don't want to get pregnant again, I suggest thinking about a backup. After my second child I had a copper IUD inserted and that's been great so far.
Pregnancy test, that's what I did. I was nursing my 6 month old and something told me to take one and sure enough, I was pregnant!
Home pregnancy tests work just fine while pregnant. It works as a mild birth control for teh first 6 months but after that it is not concidered to be a reliable source of bc at all, not that it is 100% accurate to begin with, and that is with, no bottles, no pacifiers, nothing other than breastfeeding on demand, plus if your child is sleeping through the night that also decreases the "safety net" of bfing
