NURSING & FERTILITY

BREASTFEEDING & GETTING PREGNANT

Women who breastfeed can go for long periods of time without ovulating. “Nature knows best” and tries to prevent future pregnancy while a woman is nursing – in order to allow the mother to focus on the nourishment and care of her newborn child before conceiving again.

While women are breastfeeding, the hormone prolactin is released, which suppresses follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteal hormone (LH) both of which are vital for ovulation. When ovulation is suppressed, reproductive hormone levels are low and women have minimal or no fertile cervical fluid. In rare cases, a woman can have a small and usually benign tumor of the pituitary which produces prolactin- the same hormone produced while breastfeeding. It is possible for these women to have irregular or no cycles as well as difficulty getting pregnant.

Checking prolactin levels should be part of the evaluation for all women having difficulty getting pregnant. Austin, TX fertility expert Dr. Harper will check your prolactin levels, as part of the comprehensive blood testing she completes when evaluating your health and fertility issues.

How Nursing Suppresses Ovulation

When the baby suckles, it triggers the release of prolactin, a hormone which blocks follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH), hormones essential for ovulation. Breastfeeding women may not experience ovulation for over a year. Moreover, prolactin also causes low estrogen levels which suppress the production of fertile cervical fluid.

Remember that both ovulation prediction kits and ovulation detection devices can be inaccurate if you are breastfeeding! And, because every woman is different, there is no way to predict with 100% accuracy when cycles and ovulation will return to a normal pattern after discontinuation of nursing. So it is best to use temperature and cervical fluid analysis to determine when fertility has returned. Additionally, Dr. Harper will check your prolactin levels, as part of the comprehensive blood testing she orders when evaluating your health and fertility..

Length of Breastfeeding Effects

In mothers who fully breastfeed their babies, there is contraceptive protection of approximately 98% for about 6 months after delivery. Generally, nursing mothers should start to use another method of contraception 6 months after giving birth, if they do not want to immediately become pregnant with another child. But, if a woman starts supplementing breastfeeding with other food, or if she has a period, she should typically begin birth control right away – even if it has not been 6 months after childbirth

However, these are just general guidelines, and the best way to know if you have resumed ovulating and are fertile is to resume charting your key fertility signs – especially because nursing can compromise ovulation prediction kits and devices.