did anyone conceive within 6 months of giving birth and breastfeeding?

[missytequila]

I am exclusively breastfeeding and hoping this is ok for contraception. I know it is not 100% and there is some risk.. but i have never met a breastfeeding mom who got pregnant while their baby was under 6 months old...

have you?

am very curious...

umm yes.

Resulted in miscarriage one Saturday (which was first I'd known about being pg) while at home with dd and dh in london with only car.

DD was 6 months and I had been apparently 12 weeks pg.

Didn't learn my lesson though - hence DS being only 22 months younger than DD!

My friend got pg with her second DS when her first was 5 months and b/fed. She had weaned him onto solids though so not exclusive.

Almost, had DC1 late December,got pregnant
end of July---we took a risk

was bfing exclusively. In fact I remember bfing her while on the loo miscarrying (tmi - sorry!)

It is fully possible yes.

My dc1 was 7 months when I got pregnant, but not exclusive by that point.

But was exclusively breastfeeding and had return of periods with my daughter when 6 weeks post partum, therefore could easily have become pregnant within her first six months if I had tried.

My sister got pregnant in the first 6 months while exclusively breastfeeding..... she fell for the old wives tale too!

YES it is very possible to get pregnant in the first 6 months while exclusively breastfeeding. Breastfeeding only reduces your chances and only if you never leave more than a 4 hour gap between feeds. And remember you can get pregnant before your periods return too.

So unless you are hoping to become pregnant quickly, contraception is required!

I don't know if she was breast feeding (I assume she was as the first baby was only very tiny), but there were twins in my class whose older brother was only 10 months older than they were

Ah yes, Irish twins!

(not meant to be racist - I'm married to an Irishman - more a reflection of the church's insistence on procreation being the point of matrimony).

You should only rely on bf for contraception if you would be ok with it failing. For it to be 'reliable' I understand that your baby should be under 6 months, feeding frequently with no gap between feeds longer than 5/6 hours (so if they are sleeping through the night it may be less effective).

Kellymom says breastfeeding is as reliable as other forms of contraception if -
your baby is under 6 months AND
breastfeeding exclusively (including no dummy, expressing, or solids) AND
your periods haven't returned.

two girls at my school ten months apart also. we all thought they were twins.

I stopped breast feeding at seven months, periods didn't come back. Thought I was safe as DS1 conceived after SIX rounds of fertility treatment. Oh my, I'm 12 weeks pregnant.

I fell pg when ds1 was 6 months and EBF. JUST before weaning, had 1 period before conceived.

Yes, exbf 3 hourly, pregnant at 4 months old

My dd was 4 mths when I fell pregnant. Exclusively bf & 2 types of contraception.

my 1st was around 6 months old when we started trying for our 2nd, a couple of months later (and i was still breastfeeding #1), fell pregnant!

But whereas exclusively BF under 6mo isn't a perfect form of contraception, nothing is. If you were to start a thread asking "has anyone ever got pregnant on the Pill?" then you'd equally get some responses. So you might as well carry on BFing and wait until weaning before think about other methods...