BF for birth control??

[Journeysmommy]

How affective is it?

[neuro_mom]

It's not! The other mamas can probably explain more but I just know that it is still possible to get pregnant even though you are BFing.

[cathplyr]

it seemed to work in the olden days however not anymore! In my moms generation you could use bf to space your kids 2 1/2-3 years apart. if you rely on that method now your kids will be 1 1/2 years apart. my friend was bf her 8 month old and became pregnant. i got af 4 months pp.

[Kap7270]

I'm certainly not an expert on it, but there are breastfeeding methods that are more effective for spacing pregnancies. They mostly rely on frequent nursing (including night nursing) to keep the hormone levels high. Hopefully, someone more knowledgable can comment.

[keen1981]

It's not.

You can 'up your odds' by..

Baby must be under 6 months
Baby must take nothing by mouth other than breast (no bottled, no paci, no solids)
Baby sleeps near mom
Mom has had no pp period
Baby must not sleep longer than 5 hours in a row

[snugglesnsunshine]

And just my opinion--- i believe there are a lot of things out there now that mess with our hormones: pthalates in personal care products, hormones in dairy products, etc. that contribute to the fact that pp af comes back for a lot of us sooner than you would think.

[cathplyr]

Originally Posted by snugglesnsunshine And just my opinion--- i believe there are a lot of things out there now that mess with our hormones: pthalates in personal care products, hormones in dairy products, etc. that contribute to the fact that pp af comes back for a lot of us sooner than you would think.

Thank you for solving the mystery! it seems nowadays women are infertile or hyperfertile with no middle ground. My mom spaced her kids 3 years apart and said it was b/c of breastfeeding. and I was so confused b/c myself and many of the moms I know are fertile right after baby with kids 18 months or fewer apart. but now I see that we have pesticides in our food which has hormones and everything is plastic now so we are exposed to bisphenol-a which is more hormones. we are really being bombarded with hormones. If you have any more words of wisdom on the subject please share!

[MommaPickerill]

I don't know about ovulation but while I BF'd DS#2, I never got a period but I could have ovulated the last month before I quit. We just did the pull out method along with BFing and never got pregnant.

[abunchoflemons]

Bf as birth control no. My baby at 14mo was bfing strong & solids & I still have a bun in the oven so 21 months diff by time new one is due to arrive. I know more that's the same. My postp af was back right away. Hope u find something else unless u want more little ones.

[JackieMarieVDV]

For me it worked really well, but that's just me. I am now, 15 months pp, only bf'ing 2x daily and I finally ovulated. So I'm waiting for either my first official pp AF or a bfp. We'll see by early next week. So when all is said and done I wouldn't totally depend on it b/c it doesn't work for many women.