How do you tell if you are pregnant when breast feeding?

[gloucestergirl]

Erm, that's it really.

I have heard of women getting pregnant while breast feeding, but I know that it is a very small chance of it happening. As you don't get periods when you are breast feeding how would you know that you are pregnant?

I guess it would be easy to miss, as missing a period is often the first sign. I suppose you'd have to have other pregnancy symptoms, and take a test to confirm.

Are you worried that you might be, or just wondering hypothetically?

Not everyone who breastfeeds doesn't get periods. I've known people who got theirs back after 2 months even though they were still exclusively BFing.

Some signs of pregnancy, such as sore nipples/breasts, will be VERY obvious to you if you're still breastfeeding.

I got my periods back while I was still exclusively breastfeeding which was a surprise.

I think a test would be the only sure fire way to tell.

I get periods when I'm breastfeeding. Mine returned 8 weeks after birth each time.

I was still breastfeeding when I got pregnant with DD2. By that stage DD1 was 13 months and only having a couple of feeds day, so finding out was the same as usual - took a pregnancy test when period was late.

Both DCs told me that my milk tasted funny
But I also got my periods back after a few months, so I knew when to take a test.

.....I'm pregnant and breastfeeding dd2 but she is 2.5, my periods returned when dd2 was almost 2.
Women restart their peoriods at different times anytime from 4wks to when they stop breastfeeding. A lot of women won't ovulate whilst they are exculsively breastfeeding even if they are having periods. In my case with both dds I didn't start ovulating again (was still feeding both times) when they were around 2.
The only way you could know if you hadn't missed a period because they hadn't restarted would be to take a test. Hope this helps!

You take a pregnancy test.

You can't really rely on bfing to prevent pregnancy though. I've exclusively bf two babies, to demand, no dummies, no bottles, no expressing, night feeds etc etc and it hasn't prevented them from coming back. My mw said that we're all too healthy and well fed these days and our bodies resume fertility too early. I'm not sure if she was joking or not tbh.

Forgot to add that I only think I'd started ovulating even then because at that age they had gone down to 2-3 feeds a day and no night time feeds!

Mine also came back after 6 months of EBF; but even if they hadn't I think I would have noticed (maybe if I was being a little less pea-brained than usual) because I am now PG and breastfeeding, and I noticed an immnediate and very noticable difference in how my boobs felt as soon as I was PG (obv only realised this difference once I found out I was PG) but my boobs kind of felt like empty socks all of a sudden and although the PG hasn't spelled the end of BF, I still feel noticably deflated/ and with slightly more tender nipples.

Thats interesting millymolliemandy-I was reading your post and I felt exactly the same-definite difference to breasts straight away....but mine feel heavier and fuller and very tender sore nipples-don't remember this last time!

I exclusively breastfed and my periods came back at 4 months. I got pg while still feeding when dd was 11 mo. it's not true that your periods don't come back and it's not true that it's hard to get pregnant; it's true for some people but certainly not all.

Thanks for your replies. Am half-wondering theoretically and half thinking about TTC again. I am too stingy to do loads of pregnancy tests for something that seems fairly unlikely, so the boobs seem like a good indicator.

You can get very very cheap test strips on ebay, I can vouch that they work!

I ebf for 4 months - period after 6 weeks.

Its lies, all lies i tell you!

You say unlikely, that's what we thought when we decided for 3 days it was the right time to try for number two baby; before doing a U turn and realising our first was still under one. Ooops! Obviously delighted but thought I'd warn you that BF does not nec = decreased fertility (it look us much longer the first time...)

Super sensitive nipples while feeding! I just knew... DD was 14 months old when I fell pregnant with DC3.
Periods came back at 7 months while EBF

Took us slightly longer to conceive DD2 - 5 months of trying with 2 early miscarraiges and we started trying when DD1 was around 10 months old and still feeding quite a lot (including one night feed). DD1 got a blue line the first month of trying, (which was mildly terrifying!), but we still didn't have that long to wait even with BF. Got periods back virtually straight away and then had a Mirena put in.

No obvious symptoms but I also got deflated-sock boobs for the first few months and they're only getting bigger now (23 weeks). DD has pulled a few faces at times too!