Birth Control or No?

[michelleybelle.livejournal.com]

Alright, I was talking with my roommate (who is a bio major) today, and we got on the topic of breast feeding. She mentioned that it was a form of birth control. I thought she just meant that in the case where a woman is breast feeding, she wouldn't have sex and voila - birth control. But no, she says that a woman physically can not get pregnant if she is breast feeding. Now this sounds suspect to me. Does anybody know anything about this?

Comments

Sorry, your roommate is right.

[gezellig-girl.livejournal.com]

When a woman breastfeeds consistently, she stops ovulating. It's like evolutionary birth control, insuring that the child currently nursing gets enough food before another one comes along.

[linzbinz.livejournal.com]

It is still possible for a woman who is breastfeeding to get pregnant...it's just not very likely. So like, if you were breastfeeding, and you really didn't want to get pregnant again yet, using another form of birth control would probably be a good idea, just in case.

[trocar.livejournal.com]

Big time rumour... I have a friend who has a one year old gal, and is now 8 months pregnent with her second baby. She was nursing, and didn't think she could get pregnent...
My grandma (well fake grandma) had 6 girls... Two of which where breast feeding accidents...
again, they didn't think women breastfeeding could get knocked up..

DId you know, even if you don't get your period you can get pregnent? I hadn't had mine for six months when i got pregnent with evan.... surprise, you are pregnent... and they couldn't pinpoint the time i concieved, because i hadn't had a period in six months...
anyway, ask a doctor, and they should tell you that you can STILL get pregnent when breastfeeding.. anyway, rambling, will stop now

[84.livejournal.com]

Yep, I've read and been told it was a rumor too. We actually just went over this subjet in class about 2 weeks ago, and the rumor dates back to the days when the Roman Empire and Constantinople still had the big guns, when the wives used to use wet nurses so they could NOT breast feed, and conceive again.

like someone else said

[firinel.livejournal.com]

Well, its false in that you can't say you "physically can not get pregnant" because people have plenty of times.
Its less likely to get pregnant. How much less likely? It really depends on the person in question. It also has to do with how much your nursing. Is the person nursing exclusively, or is the baby having solid foods or supplimenting?

After her first child, every single one of my best friend's children were concieved while she was breastfeeding one, or even two of the other children.
I'm sure if you went to a La Leche meeting, you could easily find more then a few people who also had their second child while nursing the first.

[dystatic.livejournal.com]

it has to do with hormones
oh hell i dont remember, this was grade 12 bio...
progesterone is the one that sustains a pregnancy and is needed for lactation
i do believe that the theory is that as long as your body is continuously producing progesterone (for lactation) your thyroid wont produce GnRH (gonadotropin-releasing hormone, which stimulates the production of follical stimulating hormone which starts the whole cycle again)
i think the problem with this is that everything happens in levels..
so if youre hormones get out of wack, or maybe youre just low on projesterone, the whole cycle can start again.
i think in a perfect world, with perfectly working bodies it works, but no one has a perfect working body
its probably not smart to rely on hormones as a form of birth control
http://infertility.about.com/library/ifctr/blfhorm.htm
that link has some info on the reproductive hormones
i wish i had my bio notes i could explain things better.

[nuwanda-1998.livejournal.com]

I didn't go back to work until my son was 18 months old, so was able to breast feed him his entire first year. In fact, that was all he lived on for his firts 12 months was breast milk... he went from the breast to the sippy cup and whole milk. I never bought formula and nursed him pretty much every two hours for a year.

However, I didn't trust the natural birth control element of breast feeding, so we always used condoms to prevent another pregnancy, and I eventually just had my tubes tied.

I guess I wouldn't put my faith in it working, even though biologically it "should" work.