What do you use for contraception post-partum?

[Anonymous]

IUDs have risks. My friend's IUD perforated her uterus and was floating around in the wrong place - required surgery to remove. I think her doctor put it in too early - maybe only 5 or 6 weeks postpartum - and it's apparently important to wait a little longer. I think she's getting another one after her next child, so she wasn't that deterred. . . . She really didn't want to use the pill.

I'm five months post-partem and I have a Mirena and like it so far, and what the PP said was EXACTLY what my doctor told me. She said that Mirena is FDA-approved for insertion 6 weeks after delivery but this happened often, so now she always tells her patient to wait 12 weeks, plus I had an ultrasound (both kinds) to determine that it was in the right place about a week later. Great experience so far except the insertion is rough - I breezed in to do it a half an hour before I needed to pick up my daughter from school and I wished I would have scheduled it for when I could have had a couple hours off my feet afterwards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My experience is similar to many of the PPs. I thought I would take ages to get pregnant after going off the pill (had been on forever...) and I got pregnant within 2 months!

Then, with #2, ! got pregnant while still nursing when #1 was a year old. I had only ONE very minor period !!!

Breastfeeding is only protective when you are feeding all the time--and even then not 100%. So once your kid sleeps thru the night nursing won't protect you!

Even when nursing all the time I wouldn't consider it to be any type of protection.

[Anonymous]

Don't want to hijack but I totally agree with PP. I never realized how many grown-up, educated, professional, accomplished women would think that breastfeeding alone is a contraceptive. It seems that they're everywhere.

[Anonymous]

I'm 5 mos post-partum and just went back on the pill. I was reluctant to do so - the pill tends to make me a little moody - and I've gone the last 5-6 years without it for that and other reasons. But my daughter was an "oops" due to condom failure, so unless I want to risk another "oops," I figured that I'd be less moody on the pill than I would be if I got pregnant again!

[Anonymous]

Breastfeeding and Mirena. Love the IUD -- low maintanance and lasts for five years!

[Anonymous]

We use condoms because I'm still nursing. It's not that bad.

And, like the PPs said, nursing is definitely not a form of contraception!

[Anonymous]

I've had a Mirena IUD for a year now, and so far so good! I had it placed 9 weeks post-partum and had it checked about 6 months later and everything seemed fine. No side effects, no problems. For me, it acutally wasn't painful to place or uncomfortable afterwards. There was a bit of spotty bleeding the first few days, but that was it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We use condoms because I'm still nursing. It's not that bad.

And, like the PPs said, nursing is definitely not a form of contraception!

I am all for condoms as long as everyone understands the high fail rate, even used correctly. Condoms are not a fail safe form of contraception!

We are using an IUD between kids. (Not 100% fail safe either, of course, but much higher. Again, condoms totally fine if you don't mind getting pregnant again a little early.)

[Anonymous]

PP with Mirena here - the stats I read had Mirena with a lower failure rate than female or male sterilization. Wow!

[Anonymous]

A virtually sexless marriage.