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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

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Original poster

Return of periods while breastfeeding

51 replies

elliott · 13/10/2002 16:29

Hi folks
This is my first post, though I've been lurking for a few weeks.
My question is this: has anyone else experienced NO missed periods at all in spite of exclusively breastfeeding? After the birth of ds, I bled for 4weeks, then 2 weeks later I had my first period!! At that time was breastfeeding about 2 hourly day and night. My cycle pretty much established itself back to normal straight away.
I have never met anyone else this has happened to, all my friends had months and months without periods. I just wondered whether anyone else has experienced this.
DS is now 10 months - I b/fed exclusively for 16 weeks and stopped completely at 6 months. When I introduced solids (16 weeks) he underwent such a personality change that I now feel he may have been hungry much of the time before, and wonder whether my supply was always a bit marginal, and that the return of my periods is an indication of this (not to mention feeling somewhat cheated of one of the rewards of b/feeding!!). But that may be for another thread so I'll stop there.
Look forward to hearing from you

OP posts:

Original poster

elliott · 13/10/2002 16:31

oops, sorry for the double posting - not quite got the hang of this yet!!

OP posts:

mears · 13/10/2002 17:07

Elliot - I was not fortunate enough to miss any periods until baby no.4, when they still returned early at 4 months despite exclusively feeding until 6 months. Not fair is it?
Babies change at 4 months anyway a lot of the time whether you start solids or not, so don't think that your supply was not good enough. It was probably coincidental to some degree.

Willow2 · 13/10/2002 20:10

Hi Elliott and welcome - mine came back pretty quickly too - although not quite as quickly, I think I had about a month or two's grace. I b/f exclusive for 16 weeks too and stopped at a year but never felt that there wasn't enough milk to go round. Also, think many babies change when they start on solids as it does help fill them up much quicker and so they aren't clamouring for as much food, sleep better and can seem generally more contented - so don't be worrying that you were starving your DS!

monkey · 14/10/2002 12:02

I had a friend who had a baby the same time as me. My periods didn't return for months, but hers came back straight away, and we were both exclusively breastfeeding. I guess it's the luck of the draw.

Original poster

elliott · 14/10/2002 16:17

Thanks - good to know I'm not the only one, I had been feeling a bit of a freak! I know its all history now, but for some reason I seem to have convinced myself that I was not a successful breastfeeder (mainly because my supply dried up rapidly once I changed to bottles during the day when I went back to work). I think I was taking the return of periods as some kind of confirmation of that, so it is reassuring to hear of people who have b/fed without problems and with periods!!

OP posts:

CAM · 15/10/2002 14:49

elliott
I had normal periods immediately when I breastfed both dd's - no missing any months for me either! When I have told some people this before, they have not believed me (why would I make it up?) so it's good to know that if you're a freak so am I.

SoupDragon · 15/10/2002 14:52

Mine came back after about 3 months I think - before weaning at 5 months anyway- and I breastfed for over a year with both my DSs. not much of a break taking into account the post birth bleeding lasted about 5 weeks. Yeuk!

bundle · 15/10/2002 15:16

mine came back after 9 mths, it's the luck of the draw by the look of it.

susanmt · 15/10/2002 16:06

Mine came back after about 10 weeks and were much the same as normal, the first time. The second time I had a mirena coil inserted at 6 weeks and have had no periods at all. Hoooooray! Because I felt cheated too the first time. And I fed dd exclusively until 17 weeks then continued till 1 year (when I got pg again and she rejected me)

DebbieL · 19/10/2002 23:40

Ooh, I was about to start a topic on this !

had a brown mucousy discharge for the last two days - I thought your periods didn't come back until you had finished B/F? I have B/F for 4 and a half months and was worried sick that my supply was drying up.
Any tips on improving your milk supply? My boobs have shrunk from 36 DD at the start of B/F to 34C - they never seem full anymore.

DD is still gaining weight - quite slowly thou and has plenty of wet nappies still.

music · 20/10/2002 01:02

My periods returned after about a month! and were back to normal in 3. I couldn't believe it, and actually thought something awful was happening to me(I'd bad time giving birth and that confused matters) I am still breastfeeding dd(7 months) but I remember at about 3 months, she seemed unsatisfied after feeds and frustrated somtimes during. My dad thought she was maybe hungry and already starting to teeth, so at his suggestion, I tried her on some solids. Only simple baby rice and fruits etc. This really seemed to help, but in hindsight I felt really guilty that it was maybe the wrong thing to do. But now I think about it,I realise that I knew her well enough to know by instinct what was wrong, and I don't think I did the wrong thing. I was never stressed about b feeding her, so she wasn't picking up on tension or anything. Also I have a friend who experienced a similar thing, except she went to the doctors, who told her that her ds was hungry! I think that sometimes a woman's milk supply can dry up a little for whatever reason. I realise this is really not pc to say, but surely all baby's are different and all women are different, and I reckon somebody should teach us this stuff so that we can judge for ourselves and not feel guilty about everything. Who knows, this could be to do with starting periods again, in my case, it certainly would make sense.

sobernow · 20/10/2002 20:44

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

forest · 21/10/2002 15:52

Can I ask out of curiosity - all the mums who's periods came back early, was your baby sleeping through the night? It's just I read somewhere that for bf to work as a contraceptive you have to keep up the night feeds. Thankfully, my periods still haven't returned (dd is 6 months and still has night feeds). Does anyone know if drinking plenty of water increases your milk supply?

Original poster

elliott · 21/10/2002 16:05

forest
no, no, no!! at 6 weeks ds was feeding pretty much 2-hourly through the night. he didn't stop needing 2 night feeds till about 4.5 months. If I had had long gaps between feeds at night I might have felt better about being saddled with periods!!!

OP posts:

Chinchilla · 21/10/2002 21:04

Forest - I have heard that drinking a lot of water does not increase your supply, but it IS important for your health. You can get dehydrated when breastfeeding a lot. I might be wrong - perhaps one of the midwives/bfc will be able to help. Plus, I am sure that you are not, but don't rely on b/feeding to be a contraceptive, or we might see you on the 'Due in 2003' thread!!!

Sobernow - Know what you mean about the boobs! Mine used to point upwards, and totally failed the pencil test. Now they feel baggy, like there isn't enough 'filling' in them, and I could keep a whole pencil case under them

Dread to think what they will look like if I have another one...

tiktok · 21/10/2002 21:21

Drinking plenty of water has no impact on supply - in fact, one study showed drinking a lot (way beyond what you are thirsty for) led to less milk (can't remember what the reason given was).

Drink according to thirst is all you need to do - and yes, sometimes you do feel thirsty when bf.

pupuce · 21/10/2002 22:18

It takes all sorts doesn't it ?
I bf exclusively until 5 months 1/2... and my periods came back when DD was 10 months old... and she had slept through the night 2300-0700 AM from 6 weeks.... and from 7 to 7 at 3 months... still no period... of course now they are every 2 weeks but I think (fingers' crossed) that this month I may be back to a 28 day cycle.

forest · 21/10/2002 22:20

No don't worry I'm not relying on bf as a form of contraceptive. It's just you read these things and wonder if there is any truth in them. It's good to actually read real mums experiences.

susanmt · 21/10/2002 23:30

Can I just say that you shouldn't be drinking according to thirst! I am a bit of an expert on drinking lots given my kidney problems. You should, apparantly, never let yourself get thirsty, as thirst is a sign of dehydration. If you drink 2 litres a day spread through the day you shouldn't get thirsty.
I have to drink at least double that to keep my kidneys OK, and it hasn't had much effect on my milk supply either way - seems much the same as the last time I bf. But I am never thirsty (dont wake up with my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth) and my skin is great, all sonce I started drinking 8 - 10 pints a day.

tiktok · 22/10/2002 09:54

When I say 'drink according to thirst' I don't mean 'wait until you get thirsty before you drink anything'

I agree - there's plenty of evidence that we should drink enough to stop ourselves getting thirsty.

But I do want to scotch the idea that women have to consciously drink loads of fluid in order to breastfeed, in order to make milk - 'cos it just ain't true!

CAM · 22/10/2002 13:18

forest - I wish! Although I am one of the mums who never missed a period except for the nine months of pregnancy, dd did not sleep through the night until she was on solids and was breastfed every night until then. A friend of mine who used to be a midwife and now specialises in SCBU nursing said that early return of periods when exclusively breasfeeding meant high fertility but I don't know if true.

Original poster

elliott · 22/10/2002 15:34

CAM, unfortunatlely that's c* too, unless I really am the wierdest of freaks. Ds is an IVF baby and my fertility has shown no sign of improving since his birth - so my periods don't even serve a useful purpose

OP posts:

susanmt · 22/10/2002 16:04

I read that if you are overweight your periods are more likely to return earlier, as your body is able to make oestrogens from the fat stores - therefore plump mums get periods, skinny ones dont. That was certainly the case for me the first time!

Original poster

elliott · 22/10/2002 16:44

hmmmm, not guilty on that one either!! Just plain ol bad luck I guess.

OP posts:

Eulalia · 22/10/2002 18:07

Return of periods has got nothing to do with supply, ie the actual amount of milk produced. It is the nipple stimulation by the baby that suppresses fertility hormones. A baby could just be comfort sucking and getting no milk but the sucking action will help to suppress hormones. This is why dummies aren't encouraged if you want to try to prevent early return of periods.

I've read that one reason why some women's periods return sooner can be because the baby is an efficient feeder. You may have a fast let down reflex and the baby takes its milk fairly quickly. So baby spends less time at the breast and doesn't need to suck so much and so hormones are not suppressed. So definitely don?t feel like a inferior breastfeeder elliot!

No-one really knows why return of periods vary so widely - it is down to the individual fertility of the woman rather than anything to do with milk supply. I didn't get a period for 13 months with ds and he was obviously well established on solids then although still breastfeeding quite a lot.

Yes it can work as a contraceptive but obviously risky - I took a risk last month (dd is now 6 months) and everything is OK. It stands to reason that nature doesn't want another baby too quickly while first baby is still so dependent upon you. The contraceptive effect works better in 3rd world countries where women have less resources and aren't so fertile. There is a link between early onset of menses and body fat - our high protein/high calorie Western diet actually makes us more fertile by tricking the body into thinking it can support a baby (the age of start of menses has dropped considerably in the past 50 years). The whole issue is obviously highly complex but this is a factor.

pupuce - every 2 weeks! I didn't think it worked like that - after my first one I didn't have another for over 7 weeks and then I had long gaps (5/6 weeks) till they finally settled down about another 8 months later

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