Is it possible to get pregnant whilst breastfeeding?

[livelifefortoday38]

I have a lovely baby of six weeks old and I'm keen to have another baby, is it possible to get pregnant whilst breast feeding and does anyone have any first hand experience of this?

Looking forward to hearing your stories..... Many thanks!

It’s not “advice” to say that exclusive breastfeeding is about as effective as condoms as a contraceptive (roughly 98%). It’s just a fact.

Did you not read the OP? She wants to get pregnant and was asking if breastfeeding would prevent this, to which the answer is yes, probably.

"Omg it's this bf as a contraceptive myth still circulating??!!"

Yes, by such charlatans as the World Health Organisation, who are the source of the 98% statistic

www.who.int/features/factfiles/breastfeeding/facts/en/index2.html

But you do need to feed from the breast round the clock, on demand, no other food or fluids. And I think that's quite rare in some countries.

It depends on the person. My period came back 14 months post-partum and I got pregnant the first cycle after I fully weaned. So I suspect that in my case, BF has a pretty strong contraceptive effect. But at the same time I have some friends who were pregnant by 12 months without stopping BF and others who had to wean just to get their cycle back to normal.

As OP is looking for advice on how TO get pregnant while BF, the answer is that you should TTC when you're ready and see how it goes. If it's clear your cycle hasn't returned then you may want to consider reducing BF - although after 6 months once baby starts solids your feeds will naturally drop in number anyway.

Had a whoops at 9 months which was an early loss in the end, conceived this one 14 months PP while still breastfeeding (24 weeks now). I stopped BF quite early in pregnancy though as my milk dried up very quickly and had a serious nursing aversion.