GP said I can’t get pregnant while breastfeeding

it may well come back soon. I think mine returned about 14 months and 17 months. I was still breastfeeding my eldest when I was pregnant with my youngest.

@Daisieblues If you want to conceive soon then the best thing is to stop feeding over night - if you are going to do any sort of sleep training it’s far,far better to do it now then have to do it when you get pregnant with the next . After 1 year a baby’s main source of nutrition should be their solid food, so you can move to perhaps morning and evening feeds only.

It is anecdotal.

my periods came back exactly four weeks after I returned to work with both my children, so exactly four weeks after I stopped feeding in the daytime, about 12 months post partum. They were regular, but trying to conceive my second I just wasn’t getting pregnant. In the end I conceived on the first cycle after I fully stopped breastfeeding: for me, that was what it took. I will say though that feeding till she was two was beautiful and totally worth it. I only wish I knew I wouldnt get pregnant till I stopped and I could have taken some of the pressure off.

Also, the WHO now suggests not getting pregnant until two years after your last child for your own health so given you don’t have an age reason to rush id suggest as much as you can removing the pressure and seeing what happens. There isn’t anything else medically that can be done to return your body and hormones to normal, sometimes it just takes time. Do your best to prioritise your own rest and nutrition and cut back on some of the feeds but we’re all different and for some people that just won’t be enough.

A friend of mine got pregnant 8 weeks after giving birth. Your doctor evidently doesn[t know what he[s talking about.

https://thealphaparent.com/how-to-get-pregnant-whilst-breastfeeding/

It’s just unlikely. That’s the facts. Your GP and PP aren’t being unhelpful.
Why do you have this obsession with tandem feeding?!

Gently OP - Enjoy the baby you have. Stop feeding when you feel ready, and another baby will likely be along soon enough.

Good lord.

Your body isn’t getting pregnant because your cycle hasn’t returned. In theory it could return at any time, but you, your doctor or anyone here can’t know when that will be.

There is no hormone test that can be done to help you.

the only advice (which as others have said isn’t particularly GP advice, your health visitor might’ve been better or just chat GPT) is to reduce BF and hope your cycle comes back, or stop and wait for it to come back.

you can’t get everything- frequent BF and “demand” your cycle back. So the only thing you can control is the BF.

the only reason BF (exc Bf, inc overnight in the first 6 months no dummy) is considered “contraception” is that you’re very unlikely to ovulate in this time.
However if and when you do, if you have lucky sex on those fertile days then you’ll be pregnant.

suspect you’ve taken the GPs advice a bit out of content tbh esp as you seemed to have unrealistic expectations of what they could do to help.

I think sadly a lot of women put a lot of their identify on breastfeeding. I saw this a lot at breastfeeding groups. They’ve found something they’re “good” at

Why should we TRUST you? Unless you can cite your evidence of these many GPs telling women this, then you’re just some random person online with anecdotes.

I don’t think it can be that unusual after 6 months considering the amount of replies on here saying their cycle returned between 12-18 months.

My periods returned with both of mine at 15 months (must have been having less). I didn't start trying for the second till I'd weaned the first - might sound silly but I didn't want to be bf and pregnant at same time. I bf both mine till 2.5 years (by the time I weaned them it was only once a day).

My cycle returned about 4 months after giving birth and I BF until about 13 months. I also had monthly ‘periods’ for the first 5 months of pregnancy so I wasn’t too impressed. I thought I would have a longer break from periods

Of course it's okay to just enjoy breastfeeding. I kept nursing because it was good nutritional insurance for my child and offered benefits for them. It also offers benefits for me in terms of reducing the risk of certain cancers later, though obviously it's not a guarantee. Silly suggestion someone made that women do it because they've found something they are good at. I'm sure they are good at lots of things! The WHO recommends nursing for two years.

Sure! But you’re talking about tandem feeding which you haven’t yet done and made it sound sort of… aspirational

We aspire to lots of things as parents. Where and how we birth, how we will feed our children and how, their educations, their play, their experiences, lots of things. If someone aspires to follow child led weaning, even if that means tandem nursing, who cares? They're the ones that have to do it.

Of course I'm a random person online with anecdotes, that's what all of us on MN (& most of the internet) are. We're here to share experiences and information that we've learned in our lives to help others, so if my anecdotes helps one person to question something they are told, that's good.

You're being very silly asking me to cite evidence, it really doesn't make you look clever at all.

Inhaf periods but my Prolactin was high so I could not get pregnant or sustain a oregnancy while breastfeeding. The only thing that worked was tl atop breast feeding..i concieved my 2nd after 3 months post weaning. And my 3rd 4 cycles post weaning.

I did manage to get pregnant while breastfeeding but always ended in miscarriage as Progestrone couldn't rise due to high prolactin. I have had 4 miscarriages in the last 17 months.

Women are not text books and sometimes you need to make adjustments to find out what works. Dropping feeds all together or reducing them or increasing the time between feeds. Different things work.for different women.

Yes, I was nursing a lot! Absolute milk monster who didn’t stop until I cut him off (at 3)! I didn’t mean to breastfeed so long but with his sister coming along I ended up staying home with them longer than planned.