possible to get pregnant while breastfeeding?! 😳

[fabulousmama]

hi guys
one of my friends have just had a baby and is 5 and half months. she was exclusively breastfeeding up until 1 week ago where she’s only introduced one bottle a day. she said she felt pregnant the way she did the first time but thought it was very unlikely/impossible for her to be pregnant as she’s only been breastfeeding! she’s also been doing ovulation tests and they’ve all been negative. if she hasn’t ovulated how could she be pregnant? 🤔
i told her i’d put a post out there to see if same thing has happened to any other ladies! but anyway turns out it was positive! could it be a false positive?

I know the criteria is very tight and requires a lot of research and knowledge. What has been annoying me is the lack of nuance in the conversation with posters acting like the idea of breastfeeding as contraception is absolutely preposterous and something akin to drinking unicorn tears. The freely available data can be found easily and yet women who are confused about LAM are treated like absolute idiots. The World Health Organisation says that its recognised as a valid form of contraception for the first 6 months and posters 'can't believe' that anyone believes this 'myth'. It's the attitude that annoys me.

@Kakinkankakoo I hear you, and I think there are some unnecessarily rude comments especially as doctors and midwives have been known to reassure new mothers regarding LAM without clarity as to the rather stringent criteria for it to be effective.

I always tell new mums that they can use LAM subject to the criteria but maybe consider it as pregnancy spacing! Very few mothers, even exclusively breastfeeding ones, fulfil the criteria especially after the 3 month mark or so, so I think it’s often beneficial to say if another pregnancy would be disastrous then don’t rely on it.

Breastfeeding does work as contraception - it’s 99% effective too, but the conditions are very strict, she’s introduced a bottle so isn’t EBF anymore so needed to use contraception from then.

For it to work properly you need to have no dummies, no bottles, be under 6 months, still feeding at night, and period not returned!

Breastfeeding doesn’t work as contraception. The earliest I’ve heard is pregnant 4 months post giving birth. No bottle, exclusive breastfed. Another case I know was at 7 months, again no bottle. Happy relying on breastfeeding as contraception…

she has ovulated and got pregnant before the start of the period.

she only started bottle feeding recently so I don’t think it had any impact on her ovulation.

I agree. Like everything, there needs to be clear explanations with an explicit understanding that breastfeeding is effective as contraception if and only if the prerequisite conditions are met.

Women are going to read that breastfeeding (when done according to the strict criteria) works as a contraceptive for the first 6 months on the NHS website, WHO website, Planned Parenthood website (US) and Family Planning Association (UK), to name but a few. Countless scientific studies can also be found on Google easily supporting this.

Then if a woman reads this and believes that breastfeeding is a form of contraception, she is often absolutely lambasted and the conversation is shut down, and it is heavily implied that the woman is ignorant and probably thinks you can get pregnant from sharing a swimming pool with a man. The scorn and ridicule annoy me.

Instead of, 'yes there are many studies which show that breastfeeding can be used as contraception, but the actual myth is that it can be any kind of breastfeeding at any stage of the child's life'. My baby is 9 months and still breastfeeding a lot, but she eats solid food and goes longer stretches. I know I could get pregnant now. 6 months ago, she bf around the clock, regular night waking, rarely separated, no period, no dummy, no formula, just constant breastmilk. I would not have expected to get pregnant then. That's the difference.

It shouldn't be a blanket scoffing attitude. It just makes the scoffers look like they are the ones who need to do a bit more research.