Getting pregnant while breastfeeding?!?!

[Ayisha]

My son is 16 months now and i'm really ready to try for another little one but the thing is i've been trying for 3 months and nothing yet
Someone told me the reason is because i'm still breastfeeding him. Is this true??
I've had regular cycles for over 9 months now and he only has alittle milk morning and night.
What am i doing wrong?? Does anyone know of anything i can take to help me?
Please help

[Pidge]

My understanding is that as long as you're ovulating, you can conceive. Sometimes breastfeeding interferes with this (especially in the early days when you're feeding very, very regularly), but in your case, if your cycle is regular I can't see any reason why the breastfeeding would be an issue.

But maybe there's something else it does to affect fertility. Someone more knowledgeable should be along in a moment!

3 months is not that long to be trying so fingers crossed it will happen for you soon.

[EffiePerine]

I got pg with DS when he was feeding twice a day. My periods came back at 4 months, so I knew it was possible . Actually took less time than when TTC DS

[EffiePerine]

sorry got pg when DS was feeding...

still is in fact (am about 10 weeks)

[Ayisha]

it seems there is hope for me yet. i got pregnant with my son pretty quickly so i guess i just expected to be pregnant by now.

[sweetkitty]

My periods came back 4 weeks after post birth bleeding stopped, the HV told me that if you have a gap of 4 hours between feeds it can trigger ovulation. I got pregnant with no2 when no1 was 9 months old.

If I were you I would try ovulation predictor kits for a month to check you are ovulating.

[sweetkitty]

My periods came back 4 weeks after post birth bleeding stopped, the HV told me that if you have a gap of 4 hours between feeds it can trigger ovulation. I got pregnant with no2 when no1 was 9 months old.

If I were you I would try ovulation predictor kits for a month to check you are ovulating.

[CantSleepWontSleep]

It takes most people more than 3 months to conceive whether they are breastfeeding or not!

If your cycles are regular then breastfeeding is not stopping you, and you are not doing anything wrong except having unrealistic expectations.

[emmatrev]

I went to the GP about this as had not conceived after a few months while still feeding year old son. He said that the general advice was to stop breastfeeding to increase chances of conception, even if your periods have returned - it could affect ovulation and implantation. He couldn't give a percentage effect but was definate that stopping feeding was indicated. Lo and behold I conceived the month after I stopped bfeeding - miscarried sadly - but conceived. People do conceive while breastfeeding, of course, so I think the decision is a balance of how long you are happy to wait, how much time you have (age being a factor) and how much you want to carry on feeding.

[chilledmama]

Its not the feeding as such but the time they spend on the boob in total therefore even if you are feeding regularly i.e at 3 months but using say a dummy you could still get up the duff!
As said, best way to know when you are ov is to use some type of predictor kit...I decided not to spend the money so do it the old fashioned (ish) way. I check my discharge daily as fertile times have quite a distict texture with me and do the daily temp thing which I have to say works better than I thought it would but doesn't predict only confirms what day you actually did ov.
There is a good website www.fertilityfriend.com which is free and does it all for you. HTH, Chilled

[Tapster]

If you look up kellymom, which is as pro breastfeeding as you get, as I've just done then it does admit that some women can't get pregnant when BFing. I also got pregnant the first month with DD1, I've been trying for 3 months ttcing no.2 and i've had two very early miscarriages, I've now cut my feeds to DD down to 2 from 4-8 in the hope that it will improve my chances but am ready to wean next month if I haven't conceived this month. Implantation can be a problem for some women still BFing. I'm in my late 30s so I can't wait, if I was younger I would continue to feed my DD until she is 2 (18 months now) before weaning to ttc no2. Good luck - it would be good to have a support thread for those still BFing and ttcing.

[BeauLocks]

I fell pg with ds2 when I was bfeeding ds1 exclusively, every 3 hours in fact.

[imaginarybluelines]

This is an interesting thread... I am trying to conceive DC2. DD (11 months) has cut down to 2 feeds a day (morning and night) and I had my first period last month. So - this is our first month of properly TTC. We'll see how it goes! Fingers crossed! Hope it happens for you soon Ayisha.

[Guitargirl]

I am pregnant and still feeding DD who's 17 months. Periods returned when DD was 4 months even though I exclusively breastfed till 6 months. Good luck!