How to get pregnant...

[duckponds]

...whilst breastfeeding.

Has anyone successfully conceived whilst breastfeeding? If so, at what age was your baby and were you exclusively breastfeeding?

Maybe we’re crazy but trying for another baby, DD is 6 months old at the moment.

I'm really interested in the responses you get to this. My wee one is 7 months old. I got my first period last week.

Yes I got pregnant when my breasted baby was 9 months old. I've read 9 months is a common time to conceive when breastfeeding for some reason! I was having periods but they were erratic, though you can get pregnant any time as it's not a reliable form of contraception. You've probably more chance once your periods return and the baby is feeding less and moving onto solids.

Baby is on 3 solid meals a day now but still no periods 😬. Though it would be possible to catch ovulation before even having a period?

Yes definitely. Your period comes roughly 14 days after ovulation, so if you ovulate and get pregnant that period just won't arrive. It's just a case of not knowing when your cycles are going to start again, it could be anytime now or not for some months, it varies from person to person. Often it's when baby starts feeding less and so your hormones change. All you can do is keep an eye out for signs of ovulation, and take a pregnancy test occasionally if you're trying

This varies massively by person. Some people go back to normal fertility as soon as their periods return (or they first ovulate), some people find their fertility is impaired as long as they're feeding at all.

I can't really answer since I didn't want to ttc again until DC nearly 2, when I was just feeding morning and evening, but I resumed regular periods at 9 months pp as soon as DS started eating more solids and as far as I can tell my fertility was as normal from that point (and yes we always ebf, ebf with solids from 6 months on; never even gave cows milk until after age 2). I conceived twice straightaway when we withdrew contraception while still feeding, and fed until my milk turned back to colostrum.

I did. DD1 was 7 and a half months and I was EBFing (baby was weaning too) and feeding at night at least once or twice.

I conceived in October, unfortunately I miscarried at 6 weeks, but it's possible .

I didn’t get pregnant while breastfeeding, but my periods came back at 9 months (DC1) and 8 months (DC2). You can get pregnant without having a period in between, but only if you would have had a period that month (and didn’t because you were pregnant by then). So I wouldn’t have been able to until 8.5 months for example (with DC1).