Breastfeeding as contraception

[hollym512]

Looking for advice!

I'm ebf my 4 week old first baby and planning ahead for contraception options after my 6 week check.
I'm keen to avoid hormonal contraceptive options if possible and I had an IUD before that I didn't get on with, so I'm interested in ebf as a form of natural contraception. I will say that I got pregnant almost immediately when my husband and I started trying for a baby last year.

My question is does anyone have experience with this and is happy to share (positive or negative). Def not keen to get pregnant again in the next year for context!

Have to be fully bfeeding, no periods and baby less than 6m and even then failure rate is high. Not to be relied on alone if pregnancy would be a disaster.

Why do you want to avoid hormonal contraception?

I was told quite firmly not to rely on this by my midwife. Even if you stop when you've had your first period, you ovulate before this period so it's pretty risky especially if you're very fertile (we also conceived on first try)

I'm a HCP and refer to the lactational amenorrhoea method as pregnancy spacing rather than contraception!

It can be effective at inhibiting ovulation as long as you feed every few hours day and night, baby is under 6 months old, has no other food or fluids except breastmilk and your periods haven't returned.

My colleague was pregnant at her postnatal check despite exclusively breastfeeding...

If you're happy to use condoms as well as LAM that would be more robust!

It’s very unreliable
I believe you have to ebf something like three hourly from start of feed to start of next feed for it to be effective.

Please don't rely on this. I was on the pill too as a back up and still fell pregnant when my son was 4 months old (first time we'd had sex since having him, was a chemical pregnancy) and them again the next cycle. Daughter is 9 months old now. So yeah.... doesn't work in a lot of cases.

If you want to avoid hormonal, what about condoms?

Def not keen to get pregnant again in the next year for context

Then do not rely on breastfeeding as a contraceptive!

In addition to what secondscreen said, you also need to be b/f consistently at night - so if your baby starts sleeping for stretches, it's not going to work.

In any case, as every mother gets told leaving hospital, you will ovulate before your first period, and won't know when that is, so you need to be using contraception if you are having sex &
don't want to get pregnant.

My sister didn't think you could get pregnant if you were breastfeeding...my niece and nephew are 14 months apart. Just nope.

If you're not keen on hormonal contraceptives, then condoms it is, really.

I was ebf with only 2 to 3 hours from the start of one feed to the next and my periods returned when DD had just turned 4 months old.

Someone in my NCT group used bf as contraception and to be fair her first child was conceived by IVF due to infertility - she returned back to work from maternity leave already pregnant.

My MIL used this method and ended up with three under two's.

You cannot rely on breastfeeding. If you don’t want another pregnancy you need to use proper contraceptive

I ebf but period still came back within 3 months so I would say it’s not reliable. When baby starts waking less at night that’s when it is not effective

Was both breastfeeding and taking the mini pill and still got pregnant.....

20% typical failure rate for condoms alone...........