Trying to conceive while breastfeeding

[Merrydoula]

Has anyone actively tried to conceive whilst exclusively breastfeeding? What did you do to try to make it happen? TIA x

I conceived while breastfeeding, due to my age we were hoping to conceive so were not using contraception. Our first baby was conceived using ivf so we were thinking our chance was very low.

My periods returned when my baby was a month old despite exclusively breastfeeding. I got pregnant when our baby was 9 months and am due in a fortnight. To be honest we were very lucky as I was not even tracking my fertile times as it seemed like such a long shot. I religiously tracked my ovulation when trying to get pregnant before we had to do ivf so that would be a starting point if your periods have started again.

Not exclusively BF, but I was still breastfeeding my toddler (quite frequently!) when I was TTC.

It's entirely dependent on whether you are ovulating. Some women do, some don't. I didn't until I completely stopped feeding. Some find they do when they go more than 8 hours without a feed, others if they nigh wean and some just ovulate regardless. Some women have successfully induced ovulation by increasing calories- the kellymom website talks about that.

I conceived while breast feeding. (On first try!! No necessarily planned 😉)
Baby who was breast feeding did then refuse breast. I think this is a thing but am no expert. I wasn’t bothered as was happy with formula but might be one to look in to.
Good luck

If your periods have returned then you can fall pregnant. It’s totally possible.

Totally depends, I had to wean both times in order to fall pregnant, was lucky to fall pregnant first cycle after stopping bf. If your bmi is lower it’s harder to conceive while bf as your body needs to conserve energy to produce milk.