Be Prepared
Unless you’re planning to piggy-back your pregnancies and are looking forward to a new little one in another nine months, you’ll need to use some form of birth control. You can get pregnant before you have your first postpartum period, because you’ll ovulate exactly two weeks before that time.
Contrary to popular belief, breastfeeding doesn’t fully protect you from pregnancy. In order for the lactational amenorrhea method ( LAM ) to work, your baby must be getting most or all of his sustenance from breastmilk, he must be under six months of age, and your menstrual period can’t have returned. If these factors are not present, you will need to use another method as a back-up.
Most women will have a postpartum follow-up with their practitioner four to six weeks after delivery. Until this time, women are typically advised to use condoms as their birth-control method. At the appointment, you can get started on another method, such as a diaphragm , intrauterine device (IUD), hormonal injection , Norplant , sterilization or birth-control pills , although some pills are not recommended for mothers who are breastfeeding. If you have a diaphragm from your pre-pregnancy days, your doctor or midwife will check to see if it still fits, since your body has gone through some drastic changes. If not, you may get a new size.
Learning how to increase fertility may boost your opportunity to get pregnant. There are safe solutions available to help you conceive a baby.