How Long After Delivery Should You Wait to Restart Birth Control?

To avoid a subsequent pregnancy, you might be looking at different options for postpartum birth control. Ovulation times differ among women, and breastfeeding does play a role in how quickly you might ovulate. Determining which method is right for you, as well as its possible effect on your milk, can help you determine when to start birth control.

Non-breastfeeding and Birth Control

According to American Baby, if you're a non-breastfeeding mother you, might ovulate anywhere from 25 to 72 days after birth, with an average being 45 days. Ovulation occurs approximately two weeks before a menstrual period, so you will be fertile even before you have a period. Because new methods of birth control can take several weeks to become fully effective, if you're not breastfeeding, you should start birth control as soon as possible.
Oftentimes, birth control needs can be discussed with your health care provider at your six-week postpartum check-up. If you've used a diaphragm in the past, make sure you undergo a new diaphragm sizing, as birth will have changed the size and shape of your vagina.

Breastfeeding and Birth Control

If you're breastfeeding, birth control options do exist; however, Planned Parenthood says that for the first six months, many women undergo a period of lactational amenorrhea. During this time, exclusive breastfeeding--only feeding the baby breast milk--naturally suppresses ovulation. Once the baby sleeps through the night or is fed solid food, however, ovulation is more likely to occur. Planned Parenthood says that only two to eight women practicing the LAM method will experience an unexpected pregnancy out of 100 users in a year's time. After this time of natural infertility, you might want to choose a hormonal or non-hormonal method of birth control, though some women do choose to start these soon after birth, even if they're breastfeeding.
If you would also like to use an artificial method of birth control, the "Breastfeeding Answer Book" says the safest options are barrier methods, such as condoms. Be careful, though, as spermicides could enter the blood stream, which can affect your milk.
If you'd like to try a hormonal option, the "Breastfeeding Answer Book" says breastfeeding mothers should only use a progestin-only method, which could include the minipill, progestin-IUDs, progestin-releasing vaginal rings, injectables (Depo-Provera) and implants (Norplant). Avoid hormonal methods that contain estrogen.