Hi there! Welcome back to CloudMom. I got a question from a mom with an 8 month
old baby who's trying to get pregnant again.
Here's what she says. My husband and I are trying to get pregnant again.
I am still breastfeeding my little girl. She's eight months old.
Any suggestions? I haven't had a period since she was born.
These are great questions. I've talked about this a lot in my videos. I did get
pregnant with my second baby when I was exclusively breastfeeding my first baby
and he was five months old which is my why my first two are 13 months apart. I
then also got pregnant with my third baby when I was exclusively
breastfeeding my second baby and he was, I want to say, they are 18 months apart
so he was like eight months old. So this can happen. I mean I don't know
probability-wise what the likelihood is but it definitely can happen. Okay.
That being said, if you are exclusively breastfeeding, you know, not giving any
bottles and including, it said, breastfeeding you know at night. Of
course. This is actually a form of birth control and the likelihood of you
becoming pregnant is highly reduced because your body is you know basically
not ovulating which is why you're not getting your period. So if having another
baby soon is a priority for you, and I hate to say this, but you know you might
want to think about the whole breastfeeding thing. Maybe like cutting
back a bit on the breastfeeding, but anyway, all that being said and you
should consult with your OB and with your pediatrician. Here's some
interesting sort of information from an amazing site called Kelly Mom that I
refer to a lot. It's a terrific resource. Here's what you know is sort of
described as a way to practice birth control through breastfeeding. So if
you're doing a lot of these things which are so great for you and for your baby
health-wise, you know. And I think it would be great to get to a year if you
can with the breastfeeding, but these are things that are actually going to
discourage your body from becoming pregnant again. I hope this is making
sense. So she says keeping baby close, breastfeeding on cue, you know using the
breastfeeding to comfort your baby, using no bottles or pacifiers. So if you do
this, what are the chances of becoming pregnant? And now I'm getting into some
statistics. According to Kelly Mom, if you breastfeed in this way, the chances of
you becoming pregnant is zero during the first three months, zero. Less than two
percent between three and six months, and about six percent after six months
assuming moms menstrual periods have not returned. This is the 6 percent I was in.
So it's really, really rare. The average time for the return of menstrual periods
is 14.6 months and moms whose cycles return early tend to be infertile for
the first few cycles. Moms who cycles return later are more likely to
ovulate before their first period. So you can ovulate before you get a
period. So anyway, that's you know a lot of information, but I guess what I would
say to boil it down is you are exclusively breastfeeding that 8 month old
girl and you have not had a period, the likelihood of you becoming pregnant is
very low. You're under your way under like 10 percent chance of becoming
pregnant. That being said, it's really important for your baby to be getting
the breast milk and it's really great for your health because you are reducing
your chances of getting breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and many other things
through breastfeeding. It's a very healthy thing for women to do. So I don't
know you know what your family planning is like, how many children you're
planning on having, you know, how far apart you'd like them to be. I mean in my
case I started relatively late having my babies so I was really feeling the
pressure and I really wanted to get them out quickly and miraculously
I did have those two first pregnancies while breastfeeding.
Now, my second two pregnancies where, you know I got pregnant when each of those
babies was you know over a year old. I was still
breastfeeding but solids had been introduced, I was pumping, and I think in
at least one case I was also giving some formula. So your body you know is
starting to get back to more of a regular cycle of ovulating, getting your
period, and obviously I got pregnant again. So anyway, amazing question. I
don't think the solution is to keep breastfeeding and trying to take some
sort of fertility supplement. I don't, to me it just doesn't make a lot of sense
because you're kind of saying like two different things to your body at the
same time. I would really sit down you know myself and with my partner and
think about what your goals are, what kind of, you know, what your family
planning looks like, what your timing looks like, and then you're gonna have to
make some hard decisions. But anyway, I hope that information was helpful. Thanks
so much for writing in, best of luck with your beautiful baby, and please send a
picture. I love pictures. Message one to me on Facebook and I will hope to see
you back soon again on CloudMom.