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During pregnancy, your body is constantly working to support your growing baby. Everything gets thrown out of whack—from your abdominal muscles to your breasts. After you've delivered your bundle of joy, your body must recover and heal from your pregnancy, labor, and delivery.
Recovery doesn't happen overnight. It may take time before your body goes back to normal and your nutritional stores are replaced. That is one of the reasons that many doctors recommend that you wait at least two years (or 18 months) before you get pregnant again.
However, accidents do sometimes happen and you can become pregnant again without planning to. In some cases, women may want to have children close in age. Although having a planned back-to-back pregnancy is a personal choice, you should be aware of the risks involved.
Since pregnancy and breastfeeding can zap up many of the nutrients in your body, having a second baby while you are breastfeeding can be tough on your still-recovering body. As a result, your body may not be able to support and nurture your new baby as easily as it did the first.
Babies conceived less than 6 months after you gave birth can raise your risk for certain pregnancy complications, including preterm births and low birth weight babies.
These pregnancy complications may be due to your body not having enough time to restore your nutritional reserves. Postpartum stress may also play a role.
If you do not want to become pregnant again, it is important to use some form of birth control when you have sex. Mothers who are not nursing can become fertile again a few weeks after delivering. If you are breastfeeding, it can be difficult to tell when you ovulate.
Breastfeeding should not be used as a temporary method of birth control. Although nursing can prevent ovulation (the release of the eggs from your ovaries), it is only effective under certain circumstances:
- Your baby is six months or younger. After six months, you are at higher risk of pregnancy if you do not use another method of birth control.
- You must breastfeed constantly. In order to suppress your ovulation hormones, you must breastfeed as often as your baby needs it. Do not let four hours in the day, and six hours at night, pass without breastfeeding.
- You are exclusively breastfeeding. Your baby should not get his or her nutrition from any other source but your breast milk. (No formula or solid foods).
- Your period has not returned yet.
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Although there is no "right" gap to become pregnant again, your risk for preterm births, small baby size, and low birth weight baby also increases if it has been five years since you last gave birth. | | |
Once your baby starts nursing less, sleeping for longer periods of time, and eating solid foods, this breastfeeding method of birth control will no longer be effective.
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