Anyone gotten pregnant while breastfeeding?

*Fluffy Bunnies - posted on 05/26/2012

Once your period is back you cannot use breastfeeding as birth control. If you want a non-hormonal option, look into charting your cycles. The book Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler has great info.

Jennifer - posted on 05/26/2012

Mine came back four months after my first and then went away again after a few months. I got pregnant while having no period and breast feeding.

Jessa - posted on 05/26/2012

My last 4 kids happened while I was still bf the previous ones. On three I had not gotten my mensies back, but still got pregnant. Breast feeding is not a highly reliable form of birth control.

Lisa - posted on 05/26/2012

Stephanie,
Do NOT use BF as your only form of birth control. It may be successful for some, but the majority will still get pregnant. I would try an IUD as it does not affect breastfeeding/milk supply like pills can and did while I was nursing my son. Hope this helps.

Lisa - posted on 05/26/2012

Brie,
With my son I bled for 6 weeks postpartum, then has a few week break and had my period every 2 weeks for 2 weeks. Your body can do a lot of funny things when you are pp and nursing. If you are still worried. I would take a test.

Julie - posted on 05/26/2012

My midwife got pregnant 8 weeks post-partum while exclusively "on-demand" breastfeeding. Before she's even had her first period. And this pregnancy happened despite the fact that she followed "the rules" explicitly. She had been a big proponent of this "natural" contraceptive. But now she tells her clients, use another method if you absolutely don't want to get pregnant. If it would be ok then it's fine to try this method.

Joy - posted on 05/25/2012

I've ebf with my 2 1/2 year old and I'm 3 months pregnant. My grandmother told me a story about her mother getting pregnant with her while she was breastfeeding my great-aunt. There's a 14 month gap between great-aunt and grandma. And another friend who ebfs in town got pregnant at least once while breastfeeding. I'm not sure in the last case if the 1st child was weaned or not before the 2nd one came along. The 2nd child was definitely not weaned when his sister, the 3rd child, came along and that surprised my friend too.

Marianne - posted on 05/25/2012

I feel pregnant twice exclusively feeding my first, no bottle and demand feeding. I feel pregnant first when she was 3 months and unfortunately lost our bub. But i fell pregnant a month later. Breastfeeding was not a contraception at all for me.

Marianne - posted on 05/25/2012

I feel pregnant twice exclusively feeding my first, no bottle and demand feeding. I feel pregnant first when she was 3 months and unfortunately lost our bub. But i fell pregnant a month later. Breastfeeding was not a contraception at all for me.

Kaitlin - posted on 05/25/2012

yup. 4 months. I hadn't even gotten my period back yet.

Brie - posted on 05/25/2012

Well...my OB told me to NOT use breastfeeding as a primary form of birth control since its as unreliable as the "pull out" method (which is how i got pregnant the first time)

I'm worried i might be pregnant again. I got my period at about 8 weeks PP and it lasted two weeks...my son is now 12 weeks old I had some spotting for 2 days last week and nothing since then! I've been breastfeeding with a little bit of supplementing.