Postpartum Birth Control « Back to Group Discussions

[rachieface]

What is everyone doing for postpartum birth control?

I am not really looking forward to thinking about this, but it should probably be on my to-do list since I'd really rather not get pregnant again for a little while.

I've always done NFP/FAM mixed with condoms before, and this time around I'm not sure that's the route I want to go. I'm looking at the IUD, especially the copper one (though Mirena is a possibility too). Anyone have experiences with either one of those? 

I hope we're not done with pregnancy, but I like a little spacing between my kiddos. And unfortunately, my period came back 4 months PP with my son, despite lots of nursing!

[lovebeingamomma]

I've been blessed (I think it's a blessing), that I can't get pregnant until after the "warning period", in other words I don't ovulate before my first PP period (which is common, but not the rule), so after I get my first period, that's the only time I need to worry about it.  Last time it was a year.  But I really don't want to think about this either!  I'm against hormonal birth control and I've tried everything else and still end up getting pregnant eventually (In 7 years I've been pregnant 7 times!).  Sorry I'm no help just sharing...

[kellybeth]

Originally Posted by rachieface 

What is everyone doing for postpartum birth control?

I am not really looking forward to thinking about this, but it should probably be on my to-do list since I'd really rather not get pregnant again for a little while.

I've always done NFP/FAM mixed with condoms before, and this time around I'm not sure that's the route I want to go. I'm looking at the IUD, especially the copper one (though Mirena is a possibility too). Anyone have experiences with either one of those? 

I hope we're not done with pregnancy, but I like a little spacing between my kiddos. And unfortunately, my period came back 4 months PP with my son, despite lots of nursing!

i had mirena, i was happy with it. we took it out when we decided to try for baby. before that was depo, which i was on for 6 years and apparently that was very dangerous. i thought there are higher risks to using copper iud's, so we stayed clear of that route. 

this time around, well just simply use condoms. 

hubby hated sponge more than anything, and the nuva ring always popped out. i don't know how any vagina can keep one of those puppies in. 

[Teles]

I have a prescription for progesterone only pills already because I plan to get 6 refills before my insurance ends for mat leave at the end of June (I'm still covered for the first four months).
 

[kat216]

My BFF loved her Mirena. That said, we're planning on FAM/condoms and VFCs--it'll be harder with nursing, but we used that combo for 6 mo. before ttc, and I loved not being on hormones!!

[loveandgarbage]

We did FAM and condoms/avoidance when I was ovulating. But I didn't keep up with my temps and ovulated a week early (never happened before) and bam... now we'll have a third little dude! So this time around it's the lovely sound of SNIP SNIP for my partner. If I still wanted the possibility of having a baby I'd opt for the Mirena. But seriously, WHY isn't there a better male birth control option yet!!

[lovebeingamomma]

Originally Posted by loveandgarbage 

We did FAM and condoms/avoidance when I was ovulating. But I didn't keep up with my temps and ovulated a week early (never happened before) and bam... now we'll have a third little dude! So this time around it's the lovely sound of SNIP SNIP for my partner. If I still wanted the possibility of having a baby I'd opt for the Mirena. But seriously, WHY isn't there a better male birth control option yet!!

Because they don't have to worry about birthing ;)

[josie423]

No man = no babies, lol!! I am looking forward to a big long break, tbh!

[buko]

I was thinking LAM/FAM, with withdrawal or avoidance during fertile times.  Might consider the progesterone-only pill, though.  I was on a low-dose combo pill for the first 13.5 years of our marriage and it was apparently very effective, because I never got pregnant AFAIK, and yet was pretty fertile, getting pregnant on our first real "try" after a couple months off the pill and then pregnant again within 6 weeks of m/c that pregnancy.  So my HBC was obviously working overtime all those years.  In fact, I was like the poster child for hormonal birth control-- better skin, nice light periods, no negative side effects.  NGL, I'd consider going back on it after the first year... although I'll give myself more time between going off of it and TTC again, as I suspect it MIGHT have had something to do with my m/c (lower progesterone?  I had only been off the pill for about 2.5 months when I conceived).

DH is already on-board for a snip when we're done having kids, but right now have no idea when that will be, except that we THINK we will want more than one, eventually.  But right now, we're thinking we won't even want to TTC again until like 2016.

[HouseofPeace]

we were doing FAM and the Creighton model to space ours.  FAM didn't work so well when breastfeeding b/c the temps were hard since i never had 3 hours of sleep near the same time every morning, and i have a lot of fluids that seemed fertile according to their charts.  as well as a 30+ day pre-ovulation phase for most of the first year of breastfeeding....  the Creighton model was working really well, so we'll go back to that at least until we're really done.  hubby says when he's sure we're done, he's thinking snip snip no doubt.  but we're not there yet.  spacing about 2 years apart has been really nice for us, and i always wanted at least 5.  so 6 is also something we're considering.  we could at least take the time to see if we're done.

the pill didn't work for me- my body actually ovulated AROUND it and bled through the wrong times.  i have one condom baby (ha), and the diaphragm was the most effective for the longest time.

i wouldn't want to do any thing hormonal as my hormones really just got settled.  i ovulate around 6 months PP every time, w/ one false ovulation around 4 months.  then it's the long breastfeeding cycles that make it hard to avoid pregnancy as my pre-ovulation phase is super long, and that's the time when you can get pregnant if you miscalculate (this one was a morning sex whoops- not sign i was going to ovulate, but we hit it right on).  but i know i can do Creighton long-term and space if we want another, or give us the time to think it out.  then we can make more permanent choices if we so choose.

right now, when husband says 'just one more' i want to kill him.  leap on him and crush him with my Heisenberg body .  but i also know that i might not be done, so i need to calm down and take my time on this.  the creighton model is very strict, which hubby hates, but as long as we follow the rules, it does work well for us for spacing.  and by the time we're breaking a rule here or there, we've already agreed on having another.  

[Chloe'sMama]

Fertility doesn't retturn for me until 15-18 months, so we have time. Dh wants to get snipped and feels done, but part of me doesn't want to be..... dh is scared of the finantial stuff.

Anyways, we have never avoided since getting off bcp almost 7 years ago and like our spacing, so if I can convince dh to another one we will do the same.

[waywornwanderer]

My husband and I don't believe in artificial contraceptives, and my body doesn't do well on hormone based BC anyway. (I had a couple year stretch where my doc convinced me to use ABC to manage PMDD, and it actually didn't make me feel better at all so I stopped my scrip.) We did successfully use NFP/FAM to delay pregnancy for the first two years of our marriage. We were implementing more of the Creighton model, where I dutifully took my temp at the same time each day. I also used a saliva ovulation scope and LH test strips occasionally to verify specific ovulation date. So, maybe more of a sympto-thermal model of NFP.

But reading over each FAM method, I'm probably most comfortable with Marquette for postpartum: using cervical mucous and/or LH surge to determine fertility. I'm not super confident in using this method yet, especially postpartum since this is my first baby. I've never had to determine fertility based on nonexistent cycles! I also don't know when fertility will return for me, or how it will manifest. (I'm hoping I'm lucky and am one of those ladies whose fertility doesn't return for almost a year postpartum! And that my fertile symptoms will be super obvious and I'll have a warning period before first ovulation. I can dream, right?)

It helps that though our overall family goal is to give this baby a long stretch of nursing and my body time to recover, we do plan on having more children. So it wouldn't be an absolute tragedy to us if we got pregnant right away, we'd just prefer more of an eighteen month or two year space between kids, at minimum. I know women who didn't really give much thought to contraception or FAM and got pregnant right at the 5-6 month pp mark... so not only were their bodies still tired/nutritionally depleted going into another pregnancy, but their nursing relationship was impacted and their babies weaned at a year old or less. I'm hoping for an extended nursing relationship with each of my kids, which is why I've already got my fertility charts filled out and appointments with a FAM nurse scheduled! ;)

[loveandgarbage]

It's bad there's no way of knowing for sure when your PP cycle will return! But there can be... signs. I didn't realize it at the time, but DS2 was conceived on the first egg one day when I suddenly, miraculously, had a sex drive again for the first time in 1.5 yrs ;).

[lovebeingamomma]

Originally Posted by waywornwanderer 

My husband and I don't believe in artificial contraceptives, and my body doesn't do well on hormone based BC anyway. (I had a couple year stretch where my doc convinced me to use ABC to manage PMDD, and it actually didn't make me feel better at all so I stopped my scrip.) We did successfully use NFP/FAM to delay pregnancy for the first two years of our marriage. We were implementing more of the Creighton model, where I dutifully took my temp at the same time each day. I also used a saliva ovulation scope and LH test strips occasionally to verify specific ovulation date. So, maybe more of a sympto-thermal model of NFP.

But reading over each FAM method, I'm probably most comfortable with Marquette for postpartum: using cervical mucous and/or LH surge to determine fertility. I'm not super confident in using this method yet, especially postpartum since this is my first baby. I've never had to determine fertility based on nonexistent cycles! I also don't know when fertility will return for me, or how it will manifest. (I'm hoping I'm lucky and am one of those ladies whose fertility doesn't return for almost a year postpartum! And that my fertile symptoms will be super obvious and I'll have a warning period before first ovulation. I can dream, right?)

It helps that though our overall family goal is to give this baby a long stretch of nursing and my body time to recover, we do plan on having more children. So it wouldn't be an absolute tragedy to us if we got pregnant right away, we'd just prefer more of an eighteen month or two year space between kids, at minimum. I know women who didn't really give much thought to contraception or FAM and got pregnant right at the 5-6 month pp mark... so not only were their bodies still tired/nutritionally depleted going into another pregnancy, but their nursing relationship was impacted and their babies weaned at a year old or less. I'm hoping for an extended nursing relationship with each of my kids, which is why I've already got my fertility charts filled out and appointments with a FAM nurse scheduled! ;)

Breastfeeding can delay fertility almost 100% for the first 6 months if you follow the "rules", which is so much easier for a first time mom, so you might as well take advantage of it!  Things like napping with baby and co-sleeping and breastfeeding on demand.

[etsdtm99]

I am planning to do more this time to keep my period away for at least 6 months - (came back at 4.5 mo with #3 because she slept long stretches and used a pacifier, i am planning to not introduce a pacifier this time to see if it helps and i plan to wake baby before i go to bed to nurse which was when i let DD2 sleep the longest)  i got 10 months after DS so that would be great... though it seems that even when my period returns early i still can't/don't get pregnant until more like 18 mo PP .. trying or avoiding it seems to happen after that..  once my period does return we will use condoms unless i am 110% sure i've already ovulated..  since my cycles tend to be really irregular for the first few months i am not usually that sure so its condoms most of the time .. we tried withdrawl for a while after #2 and that is where #3 came from so we likely won't use that 'method' .. 

we aren't sure if we want another baby or not, if we do have one i would prefer the same 2-2.5 yr spacing we've had so far ..  if we decide not to have anymore DH will get snipped but i really am leaning toward one more..  if we are pretty sure we don't want more but aren't 100% sure i might try the copper IUD.. i have several friends who got it and loved it..  i feel like it wouldn't work for me long term ( i feel like i'd end up with the heavy bleeding side effect)  but i think it might be worth a try to avoid something permanent or getting pregnant again before we're ready for one or the other ..
 

[odinsmama]

My period stays away for about a year after birth with round the clock nursing but at some point in there I think DH will get the big V done.
Between ds1 and 2 we did FAM loosely plus withdrawal.

Just wanted to mention, for those of you considering hormonal methods, even the progesterone only pill can affect milk supply in SOME women. It's not like irreversible damage to supply will be done (you should be able to stop the pill, increase nursing and bring supply back up), but keep it in mind if you start the pill and supply drops. You may have to work at keeping it up or delay hormonal methods until after nursing.

[kellybeth]

mamas, what the heck does FAM stand for? google doesn't bring anything up to help me. these abbreviations on forums are killing me. 

[HouseofPeace]

Originally Posted by kellybeth 

mamas, what the heck does FAM stand for? google doesn't bring anything up to help me. these abbreviations on forums are killing me. 

LOL!!!

Fertility Awareness Method- taught by TCOYF (Taking Charge of Your Fertility) by Toni Weschel (sp?)- uses 3 signs of natural body rhythms to recognize fertility- Body Temp, Cervical Fluid, and Cervical Position (did you read all those fun posts?!)

LAM can be used to ease into FAM if you don't use paci's or supplements and nurse on demand.  I think of them as 2 sides of the same method.

i use LAM, while watching carefully for signs of returning fertility after 4 months, and i pretty much bleed 6 months PP on the dot, sleeping or not sleeping, nursing on demand, and usually nursing 2 kids.  Creighton model (how i've been trained) doesn't use temps, but only uses mucus to judge fertility.  this works better for me than temps and the FAM fluid descriptions.  

[LadyCatherine185]

we also don't believe in hormonal birth control and don't use any "artificial" birth control methods.. we have used fertility awareness (i am very obvious when fertile based on cervical fluid alone and even just how I feel) and withdrawal during fertile times, and have very easily avoided and conceived. we are very blessed to be very fertile! and if there was an "oops" before we planned to have another we would happily accept... we are not done yet, though I do like having a 2 year spacing between babies.

[typebug]

We got pregnant so easily (round one, I'm not kidding) so I think we'll be really careful even when BFing. Condoms back on the grocery list again.