I'm not exactly sure but I think so long as you didn't have a C/S (and even then I don't think becoming pregnant straight away is a huge issue, but I could be wrong) there is little risk in becoming pregnant soon after birth. I know of a few people who were pregnant within 6 weeks of giving birth and all was fine.
It's really anyone's guess as to when your cycle will return after birth. Breastfeeding does usually prolong its return but again I know of a few people who were full time breast feeding and had their period return within a couple of months, and some fell pregnant without getting a period at all!
While others have probably fallen pregnant soon after having a baby if you can wait it is better for your body. I would suggest chatting to your maternal and child health nurse about this, and maybe your gp or ob.
If I was considering myself I would be waiting for a couple of reasons,
1. to bond with my new little person
2. to allow my body to re-coporate - which is hard to do if your feeding and caring for a little one. not to mention later when you would be reaching the end of the pregnancy and have a teething bub might be awake half the night.
some people can take up to 2 years for their body to get back to a 'normal' state, and the uterous can take about 6 weeks give or take to reduce down.
re menstrual cycle, everyone is different. after DS i didn't get mine back until he was 1 yo, and that was when i cut his day feeds out and replaced them with cows milk.
dd is 5.5 months old, and no sign of my period yet.
if i did happen to get pregnant soon after having a bub, I would still be very happy about it.
I am not 100% on 'safe' but i fell PG (unplanned) with DD2 when DD1 was 6mths old, my girls are 15mths apart.
My brother and i are not even a year apart, he was born 4 days before my first birthday and my cousin just had her 4th child (unplanned) when her daughter was just over 10mths old.. yep she was right back on that horse straight away
I like the age gap i have with my girls, it's hard at times but i wouldn't change it even though when i found out i cried for hours.
I gof AF back fairly quickly even though i was BFing.. i bled for 13 weeks then 2 weeks gap then AF returned, it depends on your body, no 2 people are the same.
Good luck with everything, i would def chat with your Dr or MCHN about the affect it wil have on your body though.
My periods came back both times about 5-6 weeks after the birth (lucky me!) and then continued with annoying regularity! ;P (despite fulltime breastfeeding, both times) We got pregnant with T when S was 9 months old and that suited us well. Also think about how you will breastfeed while pregnant, if you want to have them close together. I was only feeding S a few times a day by the time I fell pregnant, and even that was pretty ugh, as I felt very nauseous and the feeding seemed to make it worse. I don't know how I would have gone, had I been feeding a three- or four-month-old. But that's just me.
pregnancy after birth
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks