Gatting pregnant while taking the mini pill AND breastfeeding.

[jasper]

I met a woman last weekend who claimed this happened to her. She said she took her pill at the correct time each day, was still breastfeeding her baby ( who was about 10 months I think) and she still got pregnant.
Has anyone heard of this happening to anyone else?
I confess I am very skeptical of these getting"accidentally" pregnant while on the pill stories - see other thread . I can undersstnad how one might take risks with contraception because some part of you wanted another baby. This woman was adamant she did not want another child, she had not taken any risks, and it came as a real shock.

Well the pill isn't 100% and breastfeeding certainly isn't, in fact breastfeeding should be used as a contraception. I have a friend that fell pregnant twice on the pill, they discovered that the hormones in the pill were not enough for her and she had to take 2 pills at day to stop her body releasing an egg. I think that maybe this woman hadn't taken the minipill within a 4 hour window. It a horrible pill to take and I just couldn't get on with it so used condoms till I stop breastfeeding and when back on my normal pill.

It can happen but it is very, very rare. Taking the mini pill and breast feeing together give a sucess rate similar to that of the combined pill. But even if taken correctly some women will still become pg. However the rates of pregnancy whan take correctly do not 'explain' the numbers of women who do become pg taking the pill (IYSWIM). The larger numbers are those women who fail to take it correctly, ie miss a pill and don't use extra cover, are sick, have the runs, take another drug which reduces the effectivness.....and herbal preps can do this too.

It is a bit like condom failures, they do happen when used well, but most condom failures occur because the condom stays in the packet

But the bottom line is the woman could just have been unlucky.