Post Partum NFP
Want to learn more about how your body, you fertility, and NFP work Post Partum?
Come to a Post partum workshop!
- a chance to ask your questions
- visit with other new parents
- talk about parenting, breastfeeding, relationship issues during the time following the birth of your child.
Why a postpartum workshop? Is NFP different then? In a word, YES!
During pregnancy, the hormones that are providing for the baby through the mother’s body suppress the hormones of the fertility cycle. After the birth of the baby, the body begins to return to normal cycling. It can take a considerable amount of time, especially if the mother is fully breastfeeding her child. Some women have more than a year without cycles. For other women, the time is shorter—a matter of a few weeks or months. Any change in the baby’s nursing patterns can cause fertility to return (when the child sleeps through the night or when there is some other reason that the little one is less dependent on mother’s milk).
For the majority of women, before fertility returns there will be at least one episode of breakthrough bleeding before ovulation. This is often termed a “warning period,” but is not true menstruation because it doesn’t follow ovulation.
What does a couple do at this time? If they wish to postpone their next pregnancy, they will need to be alert to changes in the mucus pattern since the hormone flows in early postpartum cause temperatures that are usually not particularly helpful. And internal signs cannot be consulted until after healing is complete. The good news is that the mucus sign is usually a good indicator that the hormones of normal cycling are kicking in—despite the fact that it will likely be a time of transition of 2 or 3 months or more before the change is complete. And the temperature sign will indicate conclusively when a “Peak” of mucus is actually indicating ovulation.
Because of these changes and the adjustment time for parents, baby (and other children, it there are some) we suggest attending the postpartum workshop during the final trimester of pregnancy to be as prepared as you can for what you will experience.
