WIBU regarding contraception (or rather, lack of!)

[Moominsummermadness]

When I gave birth to my baby 7 weeks ago, I was handed a leaflet regarding contraceptive choices on the post-natal ward. There was a section regarding using breastfeeding as a form of contraception. It said that as long as periods had not returned, baby was exclusively and frequently breast fed and under six months old, this would be an effective form of contraception. I therefore decided that I would rely on this until I saw the nurse at the 6-8 week check, then get the mini pill.

Today I had the check, when asked if I'd had unprotected sex, I admitted that I had, and I got a prompt telling off. Why on earth do they hand out leaflets stating that lactational amenhorrea is ok as contraception, if it's that unreliable? I was made to feel like a silly little girl!

Kind of shocked there is a leaflet even suggesting this as a form of contraceptive, particularly as it seems so few women have any idea when they're ovulating. But that's possibly a whole other thread.

As a midwife, I would say Lactational amenorrhea was an effective form of contraception because it is. As effective as condoms anyway and if someone was using condoms we wouldn't say they were having unprotected sex.
As long as you follow the basic guidelines you are 98% protected.
That still means 2% of people are going to get pregnant and probably more in reality as with condoms because lots of people won't follow the guidelines (esp the no dummies).
LAM, like condoms is clearly a method to use if you plan another baby and would ideally like to space them fairly closely together but not get pregnant immediately.
If you want to have a wider gap between babies you'd choose a more reliable method like the pill, patch etc
If you thought you were done but weren't certain you'd opt for a different method like an IUD. The nurse you saw today was obviously badly informed.

After giving birth you know when your periods restart. You do not know when ovulation restarts. So you cannot possibly use absence of periods as showing that you don't need contraception.
My periods returned 5 weeks after having an ebf baby who had never slept more than an hour or two, so I ovulated 3 weeks after birth.

If a condom splits, you know about it there and then. If you have your first post-natal ovulation, you know about it 14days later due to arrival of period. Or thereabouts, due to two lines on a stick.

Really not the same?!
Unless you track ovulation and do temping, opk's, mucous observations you can't possibly know just how your breastfeeding is affecting your cycle. And if you do do that, isn't it NFP dressed up as LAM and fuck all very little to do with "breastfeeding as contraception"?

Am I missing something?

Who's eye rolling

I queried the equation of condoms and LAM - they are poles apart.

Also reiterated the fact that ovulation occurs prior to the first period. It doesn't add up to say "the absence of periods", the horse has already bolted by that point so to speak. I would like to see some extensive stats collected on this, recent as well as historic, it all seems very subjective.