Breastfeeding in itself doesn’t guarantee that you won’t ovulate, or that you won’t start your period back up. Having said that, breastfeeding does impact the way that a woman’s cycle works. Breastfeeding, while it doesn’t always, can keep a woman from ovulating or having a period, sometimes for as long as the woman is breastfeeding.

There are some ways that you can know if you are going to ovulate while you are breastfeeding. If you used Ovulation Predictor Kits (OPKs) prior to becoming pregnant, you can used them again while you are breastfeeding to know if you will ovulate. It is more difficult to use indicators such as basal body temperature and charting cervical mucus, however, because your cycle may not exactly be back to a regular schedule if you are breastfeeding.

There are some signs that will help you to know if you have started to ovulate while you are breastfeeding. First of all, women with babies that are less than six months old are most likely to not ovulate or have their period return. Also, if your menstrual period has returned, you should make the assumption that you will also be ovulating. By the time that your baby’s feeding schedule is being supplemented, whether that is from the bottle or from other foods, it is very likely that you will be ovulating, as well.

The timing that you begin to ovulate while you are breastfeeding can vary from one woman to the next. In addition to this, the pattern of nursing that your infant engages in will help to determine when it is that your cycle starts to get back to normal. This means that even from one pregnancy to the next the same woman may have a different experience.

Generally speaking, breastfeeding as birth control is not especially effective, especially when it is compared with other methods of birth control. Still, if your baby is younger than six months old, feeding exclusively on breast milk, and your period has not returned, there is only a small chance that you will start ovulating right away.

This entry was posted in Breastfeeding, Getting Pregnant.