discharge -sorry tmi- before 1st period after b/feeding

[Momino]

I stopped bfeeding about amonth ago and still waiting for my 1st period (after birth 9 months ago). for a couple of weeks I've been having mild period like pains and clear, sticky/stringy discharge (sorry) every couple of days. is this d/charge normal? when's period going to arrive?

I had that, (was worried it wasnt normal to) came on about a week or two after. Had it the second month also. HTH.

It's probably what is commonly termed "egg white cervical mucus" or EWCM for short. This is the kind of cervical fluid you produce when you have high levels of oestrogen, and the high levels of oestrogen mean you've either ovulated or are geaing up to ovulate.

It's perfectly normal and most women will get a patch of it mid-cycle when they are going to ovulate. You may have noticed it this time because your body is taking a while to get into the swing of things so you've had a much longer period of time with high oestrogen levels than in a normal cycle.

Check out Taking Charge Of Your Fertility by Toni Wechsler if you want to know more. I do sometimes get quite that all the emphasis in schools is on teaching girls about periods and that the other perfectly normal cyclical changes don't get a mention, so that whole generations of young women get worried unnecessarily about "discharges" and other things.

thanks for the help. it makes more sense to me now (though it feels like I've ovulated about four times in two weeks, lol). will check out the Wechsler book.