A poll for all moms outta curiosity

[AKCristyMJ]

I'm asking because after 16mos I do not have a ppaf yet, although that is very likely ok. I've been nursing for 16mos.

We are TTC, but I not only wanted to know "stats" here on who was successfull at conceiving without a ppaf......I hear that is pretty rare, but what worries me the most is an article I read where Drs note an increase in miscarriage when women conceive before a ppaf.....as in that typically is not a healthy egg.
Overall I think these matters of af, conception and miscarriage are in Gods hands.
We are not too terrible worried bout it.
But I wanted a general idea of occurance.
Thanx! :)
Oh and I left it open to 10 votes per person so you can vote for ALL your pregnancies, miscarriages and/or friends too.

[milkmommy]

Cecilia's my only (no miscarriages) so I can't answer. AF returned with in the first month of delivery but its been almost 2 years of TTC without success. Their are other issues though.

Deanna

[AKCristyMJ]

Oh Deanna...I'm so sorry.
:hug
What are the issues?
2yrs of TTC can't be easy. :cry I've only been at it mildly since Jan and am already :sa

My :pray are with you! :)

[tree_hugger]

I got pregnant with Sam within a few weeks of Benjamin sleeping through the night with no breastfeeds - no ppaf here. :-)

[Julia R]

With #2, I didn't have a real ovulating cycle until a few months after total weaning (~15mo). Now after #3 (12 mo), I've had a few bleeding cycles, but no thermal shift, so they are annovulatory. You body does some wierd things during breastfeeding. Sometimes it takes a few cycles of your body trying to ovulate before it gets there. Even if you do have bleeding, the only way to know if you are really ovulating is to take your temps. Are you familiar with this book "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" http://www.ovusoft.com/products/bookstore.asp. There is a good deal speaking about return of ovulation and breastfeeding. You might post this question to the Ovusoft message boards too.

I don't remember reading about the miscarriage rate. But, I wouldn't think that it would be cause not to try before PPAF still.

You are likely to notice changes in your cervical fluid soon before ovulation returns. You may have long periods of cervical fluid in the few months before you actually ovulate again.

For the poll: my answer doesn't reflect well. DH was overseas for 10 mo before AF returned and was overseas again 6 mo right before concieving again. Who's to say what would have happened if he were here.

[RealLifeMama]

I had one PPAF, more of the cleaning house kind, before I got pregnant with DS.

[MarynMunchkins]

I got pregnant with Ana before my first ppaf, and I was nursing and on the mini-pill. :lol That ended my adventure with birth control - since it doesn't WORK, I'm not going to take it. ;)

When Ana was 2 months old, I had a miscarriage. :( It was very early - probably a failed implantation.

I got pregnant with Colin after about 6 months of regular AF. :)

[Gailmegan]

I had three PPAF after Justin before Nathan was conceived. Sometimes even if AF returns you can have anovulatory cycles for a while. I just got AF back with Nathan. I had two months with no ovulation, and this past month the signs showed that I ovulated, but we are TNTC for a little while.

[Leslie]

PPAF means post-partum after a return of menstrual cycles?

I have four children. We've never used birth control or gone out of our way to try to conceive (I've never charted my temp or anything).

With the first one, my husband had had a vascectomy reversal and I was pregnant two months later.

I nursed baby number one for 32 months, I got AF back when he was 17 months and I was pregnant again when he was 19 months.

I nursed baby number two for 36 months, got AF back at 16-18 months (I forget when exactly) and I was pregnant again when he was 31 months, I think.

I nursed baby number three for longer, got AF back at 16-18 months, and got pregnant again a few years later.

So I've never gotten pregnant PP until my cycles returned.

[Soliloquy]

PPAF means post-partum after a return of menstrual cycles?


Yes, it does. The acronym PPAF stands for post-partum Aunt Flo, Aunt Flo being your period :smile

[luvinmykidz]

I didn't have a post partum period for 3 years and 2 months :eek Would have been longer but my ob induced one with provera because my hormones were so out of wack. Both times I planned to get pregnant and both times I got pregnant on the first try and have never had a miscarriage before. However I never tried to get pregnant during the times that I didn't have a period. My husband and I did use birth control even though we probably didn't need too.

[4LovesMom]

I got pregnant with #3 just before #2's 1st birthday (and no AF). So it always makes me laugh to write August, 2002 as my LMP on forms at the doctor's office!

[Allison]

Some of the above. I got pregnant after two months of PPAF when my oldest was 10 months old. I miscarried. Then I got pregnant several months later with my youngest. This time I'd had my first PPAF when he was 13 months and I got pregnant in my 7th cycle.

[Earthylady]

I voted pregnant after real ppaf although I'm not yet pregnant again...because....I have had a genuine af. I have actually had two now...dd is 20 months and with both of them, my lp has been too short for us to conceive. So, although I have my period back, we still can't get pregnant yet. One lp was 6 days, and the other was 7 days. From what I've read, this too can be normal. Baby is still nursing too much for progesterone to be high enough to accomodate an implantation, but not enough to completely stave off af. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones that gets fertility back in baby steps. :)

Mandy

[BHope]

I'd be curious to read the study and see how they determine the health of the egg.

Follicle maturity is influenced by hormones in the body and I breastfeeding can affects those hormones. However, I'd be more likely to believe that this affects the egg either through ovulation suppression (annovulatory cycles) or through shortened luteal phases. Thus preventing implantation of fertilized egg.

For those curious I was googling information on egg health prior to the return of menstration and found an interesting statistic that two-thirds of women ovulate before the signs of vaginal bleeding. Although, 47% of those ovulations were not accompanied by an adequate luteal phase. (Campbell OM, Gray RH. Characteristics and determinants of postpartum ovarian function in women in the United States (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=8333476&dopt=Abstract).Am J Obstet Gynecol 1993;169:55-60.)

For the record this little pumpkin I'm nurturing right now was concieved after four PPAF. I have no idea if I ovulated prior to PPAF, but my first two cycles were annovulatory, my third cycle had a short luteal phase, and it wasn't until the fourth cycle (supplemented B6 with RRL tea) that we concieved. All four of my cycles were long. Averaging between 35 and 50 days. (I ovulated day 23 with this pregnancy.)

[Earthylady]

Manda,

Thank you for listing that article! That's very interesting!

Mandy

[Soliloquy]

I just found out I'm PG and I've never had PPAF. I started charting around DD's first birthday and my chart went on and on and on and finally on June 18th a temp rise! That was at about 16.5 months post-partum. My DD still nurses frequently, day and night, so it really was a wonderful surprise.

We'd already turned our family planning over to the Lord--there will be no trying to prevent, so I'm not concerned about a supposed increased risk of miscarriage. I believe that if God wants this baby to be born, it will be born. Of course, I don't want to m/c, but for me the fear of m/c won't change my decision to let God plan how many children I'll have and when they'll be conceived.

[ebethmom]

I went on the mini-pill 6 months after ds was born. :td I bled every other week while I was on it. After a few months of that, I decided those were not for me.

Once my cycle started on its own after the minipill, I was regular like clock-work! That was the only time in my life that my cycle had any *cycle* to it (except for the 6 months that the three female members of my string quartet were on the same cycle).

I had a year and a half of regular cycles before we tried for dd. Well, we were actually on "talking" about trying. Dh was disappointed!

[Mama Calidad]

I've had AF return good and regular after 8 weeks or less with both kids. There wasn't anything going on prior to that that would have even left the possiblity of a pregnancy before PPAF. I only had eyes for my babies...and too vivid memories of labor. :giggle

[Cheyenne]

Well, all my babies were weaned at about 12-14 months prior to this baby and I would get my af back at about 14 months or so. I got pregnant with my youngest without a ppaf. I too think it is funny that my last AF was October of 1999. Gotta love it!!!! This little baby though will nurse longer. Don't know how long yet, because I am very new to the concept of EN. I never thought about it before. I was always commended for nursing a full year. Never really knew one could/should nurse longer. Cool thought. Now I wish I hadn't weaned my other children so early.