I feel like such a naughty girl

[Nettee]

I have just been turned away from having a coil fitted because I have been relying on lactational amenorrhea for contraception for the last 12 weeks. Given a little bag of condoms and another appointment in 4 weeks time with a pregnancy test! I suppose they have to have their policies but 99.5% reliable sounds good to me especially compared to a bottle feeding mother relying on the 96% reliable condoms. have now started feeling sick though in the car on the way home. surely psycosomatic. - oh dear maybe I should get a home test before the doctor can say I told you so.

really should have at least been more careful in the last two weeks - I thought they might be funny about it. (a me a midwife - slapped wrists)

anyway just wanted to rant really - anyone you know got pregnant this way?

noooo - too scary. I didn't get a period until DS was 8 months old - I might go and get 2 tests - one for today and one for 2 weeks time and let you know.

You've lost me now,did I miss a bit?
Your Ds is over 8 months and your periods have returned and yet you thought you couldn't get pregnant because you are still breastfeeding?

I thought you had to bee feeding exclusively every 2 hours or so for it to be that effective...but can't be arsed to look at link sorry.....not something I would reccomend as contraception as a medic though

Aha! I see. Thanks Fio.

I'd be too scared to live that dangerously tbh.

well you will be glad to hear that the test was negative today. Just have to wait two weeks and test again. Don't worry I don't recommend this to my clients at work I wouldn't dare but on the other hand I do believe that it is a valid method of contraception and feel a bit annoyed that the medical establishment won't recognise it. They could be just as worried about barrier methods and insist on two weeks of abstinance before fitting coils.

No because I won't lie to the doctor and I can't have my coil fitted if I continue not to use some sort of medical intervention or abstain. Also it was only ever meant to be temporary and the longer I go on with it the more I worry. I promised to use condoms so I will but I have found this on cochrane (who we really can't argue with for evaluating the available evidence) which at first sight looks a bit worrying but infact shows the 6 month pregnancy rates to be anywhere between 0.45 and 2.45 % in the controlled studies which still sounds pretty good to me. That is using it for 6 months and I have only done 3.

this was the article I read as a student produced in 1994 by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists no less. Probably overjustifying myself now but I am not just talking rubbish

hmm - well I meant that the doctor had made me feel like a naughty girl - but I am not really - being a married woman and all. But to be honest she was very sweet about it and didn't make me feel too guilty - I just have too low a guilt threshold.