Birth Control Post-Baby

[fuccimama]

I am scheduled for a tubal ligation, but i'm too chicken for all the ectopic pregnancy risks. I will look into the IUD as an alternative.

[honeybunches101]

I will likely do nothing, or maybe go on the pill when I get my period again. It took 18m to get pregnant this time around, after getting pregnant immediately with DS. We are pretty sure we would like a 3rd sooner rather than later, so we'll see. We are ok with the risk of getting pregnant again before my first period, but maybe when I am back in newborn sleep deprivation hell I will rethink it and go on the pill. I was on it for years with no problem.

Either way, I will definitely plan to ask for BC in the hospital. I don't know if it was just where I delivered, but I was asked about 15 times what BC we were going to use right after I delivered. Like every blood pressure check, 3am feeding, they would ask. I kept cracking up, I had tons of stitches in my vagina, and you think I am thinking about sex??

[jcprn]

We struggled with male infertility for 2 years before getting pregnant with our first IVF cycle (that wasn't covered at all by insurance) so I don't plan on going on any birth control whatsoever. We have 3 frozen embryos and each further attempt will cost us almost $6000 each try. As far as I'm concerned, if we get pregnant on our own it will be a wonderful miracle. Not sure how my OB is going to feel about this since it hasn't come up in any of my appointments yet...

[tatersalad]

Apr 8, 2015 13:51:14 GMT -5 honeybunches101 said:

I will likely do nothing, or maybe go on the pill when I get my period again. It took 18m to get pregnant this time around, after getting pregnant immediately with DS. We are pretty sure we would like a 3rd sooner rather than later, so we'll see. We are ok with the risk of getting pregnant again before my first period, but maybe when I am back in newborn sleep deprivation hell I will rethink it and go on the pill. I was on it for years with no problem.

Either way, I will definitely plan to ask for BC in the hospital. I don't know if it was just where I delivered, but I was asked about 15 times what BC we were going to use right after I delivered. Like every blood pressure check, 3am feeding, they would ask. I kept cracking up, I had tons of stitches in my vagina, and you think I am thinking about sex??

I was asked frequently in the hospital too. I'm sending hubby in for vasectomy ASAP so I can bypass hormonal birth control all together this time, but if for some reason he hasn't gotten the procedure yet I'll do mini pill and regular pills again until he does. I am not okay with Irish Twins and a bit taken back by all the ladies listing pull out as a method of birth control. If you are fine getting pregnant again right away, more power to you.

[erbear]

My h is infertile so if I didn't really need bc to control my periods, I wouldn't get on it. I'm leaning towards trying an IUD.

[mrskblack11]

We haven't used condoms in YEARS and neither of us would want to use them. I had no problems with being on the birth control pill or coming off of it. We got pregnant our 1st cycle of trying. Although that pregnancy ended in a miscarriage, we then got pregnant immediately after (before I had a real period). Apparently I am pretty fertile and I do not want to chance getting pregnant right away (so no pull out method for us) so I will go on the pill again.

[mcp6286]

I LOVED being on the pill (Yaz for me, too) and can't wait to get back on it! It made my health issues less severe and balanced my moodiness. When I first went off of it, DH was like "OMG who are you???" We want to have Baby #2 in 2016, so I will not be going on my pill again after giving birth. When I went off the pill the first time, I didn't ovulate for 7 months (they were getting ready to test me for other issues when I finally got a period). After that, we conceived our first cycle of trying. I know we won't be able to have sex for a while after my c-section anyway, so I'm just going to track my ovulation again for the first few months so we can avoid the most probable days to conceive until the fall. Like carolyngrace, I'm at a place in my career where it makes sense to wait to take the next step until I'm ready to go back to work full time. I'd like to work only part-time until LO #2 is 1 yr old.

[nicolec78]

With having PCOS and fibroids we spent years not using birth control and not getting pregnant. My three kids are all ten years apart. I was on the pill for three years to control PCOS symptoms and got pregnant while on the pill. We consider this one our miracle. My friend told me for weeks I was pregnant and I thought she was nuts. If I have to have a c section I will opt for a tubal ligation I'd not I am looking at other permanent options. My DH has gone to the doc once in the last 13 years so getting him to have a vasectomy would be another miracle.

[turtletyme]

I have loved life off the pill, so I am not sure what to do. I think we would at least wait a year before trying for another kid (if we do.) I am curious about the mini pill with nursing and if the side fx are fewer than the regular pill. Or, rubbers it is I guess?

[tatersalad]

Apr 8, 2015 18:56:16 GMT -5 turtletyme said:

I have loved life off the pill, so I am not sure what to do. I think we would at least wait a year before trying for another kid (if we do.) I am curious about the mini pill with nursing and if the side fx are fewer than the regular pill. Or, rubbers it is I guess?

For what it's worth I didn't notice any side effects from the mini pill. I did find that the birth control pill that worked great for me for almost 15 years prior to getting pregnant didn't interact as well with my post pregnancy hormones, so I'm looking forward to hubs getting a V rather than experiment with different birth control pills, but without that I would definitely be doing the mini pill for the first few months. The risk of subsequent pregnancy is just too much for me.

[teenybird]

Given that hormonal BC methods seemed to wreak havoc on my cycles and then PCOS complicated things post-BC, I'm definitely not going on to any hormonal BC methods - including Mirena/progesterone IUD. FAM is pretty useless for a 100+ day cycle like the ones I usually had, so I've been talking with my midwife about the copper IUD (since it's non-hormonal). My practice won't put IUDs in until 10 weeks post-partum, so I'm going to hem and haw about it for a bit longer before I make a decision. Since I guess pregnancy can kind of "reset" things, I kind of want to wait and see if I start cycling a little more regularly and, if I do, what the periods are like. Copper IUDs can make periods heavier/crampier, so there's that downside to consider…

[ThePalindromicOne]

Sorry it took forever for me to get back to a thread I started and respond! Just wanted to thank you all for your thoughts/experiences!

[sordidvolition]

I had mirena after my first. DH getting a V but I will likely get mirena again so as not to have a period.

[Girlymama79]

It took me 3 years to get pregnant with a sticky baby. We are not going to use anything. We are hoping that my body does reset and I do get KU again right away.

[omgtree]

I'm having a repeat C-section and doing a tubal while they are in there. This is our last one.

[lalamomma]

After DD I went back on BC but this time we are done with babies so DH is happily getting a Vasectomy.

Ironically DH's boss (they get along very well on a friendly level) who is usually private shared his experience with DH that it's important to go back and have it checked because he almost didn't and his wife made him...yeah it didn't take properly and she could have gotten pregnant. So make sure for those of you with DHs getting the a vasectomy you have it checked after. .

In the past however I've used various pills and the ring. Ortho Novum gave me sore throats and the ring made me very nauseated when I would have my period. Those were the only two I had issues with and I was on BC for most of the time from age 15-29 (except when pregnant with DD and when we were "trying" for DD which was really just not using protection more than actual trying.

[mrskblack11]

Found out that one of my friends tried the "breastfeeding is birth control" method. She is now 14 weeks pregnant.

[carolyngrace]

Apr 13, 2015 9:52:58 GMT -5 mrskblack11 said:

Found out that one of my friends tried the "breastfeeding is birth control" method. She is now 14 weeks pregnant.

My friend that did this currently has a 1 year-old and a 22 month old... She's on real bc now

[ladymouse]

Vasectomy.

[shinytoys]

We've used the pull out method. Ridiculous I know but in ten years we've luckily have only gotten pregnant when planning. As of now that's my game plan....

[megeliz1]

We struggled to conceive DD1 and I went on the mini pull for about two months after delivery. I couldn't remember to take it right to save my life so stopped taking it. We used no contraception at all figuring that conceiving wouldn't happen based in our history. I got pregnant 6 months post partum with this baby.

I am getting an IUD and H will likely get a V before the end of the year.

[schnurette]

I was on the pill for years before we decided to get pregnant with DD. I did have some adjustment (hello weight gain) but we got pregnant pretty quickly once I was off the pill. (Off pill late May, pregnant in August. Not trying, just not preventing.)

After DD it was recommended that I get a Mirena IUD because I had lost so much blood during the c-section and they were hopeful that it would minimize my periods so that my body could replenish my iron supply. It worked (apparently better than expected) and I didn't have a period again until I had it taken out to try to get pregnant with #2...which again happened like a month after pulling the goalie so to speak. (Out in late July pregnant in September. We actually got pregnant right before/simultaneously with deciding we should wait a bit more...ahahaha :/ )

FWIW - I don't want to seem like I'm bragging about how quickly we got pregnant both times but feel it is relevant to the convo - neither the pill (tri-cyclen low) or the IUD caused any sort of fertility problem for us. (I did bleed like a mother for about two months after the IUD went in which was horrible and made me want to stab every doctor involved.)

[holliberry28]

Apr 7, 2015 22:57:53 GMT -5 leenziepops said:

Pull out method worked for us for a good 6 years so we're going back to that. Poor DH has had fun but he'd rather pull out than get me to go on BC pill.

+1 ..especially after charting/temping and reading Taking Charge of Your Fertility, DH will probably only pull out the 2 weeks mid cycle.  Saves money on condoms lol and I can't deal with BC.

[sugarbean17]

In the past we have done condoms then DD came. Then did the mirena (the strings needed up getting cut too short so we both would get uncomfortable, then BCP (I ended up getting very depressed and scary) so then NFP. Then after a loss we did the mini pill to give us time before trying again, then after DS did the mini pill again for the first year but when he was done BF I did the mirena again for a year and a half. Then it took 5 months to conceive this little one.

I think this time I might go with a copper IUD. We were talking more permanent options but I'm only 25 and even though we are pretty sure 3 is our number I don't want it to be completely taken off the table. You never know what the future holds.