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Conception

When's the best time to get pregnant? Use our interactive ovulation calculator to work out when you're most fertile and most likely to conceive.

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Original poster

Ovulation and breastfeeding

7 replies

Thecaravan · 12/12/2017 02:07

Hi,
Bit of an odd question but is there any way that you can 'induce' ovulation when breastfeeding? I have a 9 week old DD but am 40 years old so DH and I want to try for number 2 asap. I don't want to stop breastfeeding yet as it is working really well so am wondering if there is any way either through medication or naturally that my body can be made to ovulate again?
Thank you!

OP posts:

Haggisfish · 12/12/2017 02:19

For lots of people, it is night weaning. Tbh I don’t think it could really be gone until 6months old if you want to ebf, but wiser people than me may say differently.

ZigZagandDustin · 12/12/2017 02:25

No, sorry OP but you can't override the body's most basic functions. As Haggis said you would be best to try and make large gaps in your bf day. You shouldn't need to stop completely but you could start mix feeding to see if you can get your body to ovulate. You'll struggle probably to have much of a regular cycle and ovulation timings possibly but you should start to ovulate if you have an 8hr ish period in each day where you don't feed.

LaBelleSausage · 12/12/2017 02:49

If you express your milk in the evening and then use that through the day, that should give you a decent 8 your window.

Is that an option?

Original poster

Thecaravan · 12/12/2017 03:41

Thanks everyone. Good to know. So maybe with expressing I could create a long enough window of no feeding in order to help kick start ovulation. DD is generally going 7 hours at night (for now at least ) so if I had an expressed feed ready for when she woke then could use that to go longer between actual feeds. Do you think that would work?

OP posts:

ZigZagandDustin · 12/12/2017 04:17

Try it. But wxpressing itself founds as a feed so make sure you're creating a proper gap.

Haggisfish · 12/12/2017 15:51

Potentially.

piglet81 · 12/12/2017 16:52

It's one of those things that varies massively - some women get their periods back by 6 weeks postpartum even exclusively breastfeeding, but for others it takes very much longer. Blessing/curse depending on your situation, and you say you're keen to TTC again soon. Your baby is still very young though, so do bear in mind that cutting back on feeds could have an impact on your supply and consequently on baby's weight gain so you may want/need to think about combination feeding, which works well for some mums. Good luck

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