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Trusting the Body or Not?

QUESTION

Dear Midwife,
I am puzzled, because for about 11 weeks my body has felt pregnant, and it was right after we were careless with contraception...believing it was quite safe to have "unsafe" sex because I am breastfeeding my little one day and night. He was around 4 months at the time and now he is 6.

The strange thing is that all the pregnancy tests that I have taken has shown negative result. This makes me insecure. I will order a ultrasound but I am curious if this is possible since I am still breastfeeding full time?

Thanks for your answer.

Kind regards,

Eva

ANSWER

You should trust a pregnancy test--breastfeeding does not affect the accuracy of the test.

Breastfeeding does help to reduce (but not eliminate) your chances of conception, but your symptoms might possibly be explained by hormonal changes.

Do you want another baby right now? If not, then maybe you should consider a form of birth control that is compatible with breastfeeding, such as foam and condoms, the mini-pill (for good pill takers) or one of the two IUDs.

-- Cynthia, CNM

Cynthia Flynn

Cynthia Flynn, CNM. PhD, is the General Director of the Family Health and Birth Center which provides prenatal, birth, postnatal, gynecological and primary health care to underserved women and their families in Washington, D.C. Recently Cynthia served as Associate Professor of Nursing at Seattle University. There she not only taught, but remained in full scope clinical midwifery practice at Valley Medical Center where she cared for pregnant and birthing women, and practices well-woman gynecology, family planning, and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases.

Cynthia founded Columbia Women's Clinic and Birth Center, where she took care of pregnant women and infants up to two weeks of age and attended both birth center and hospital births. Before Cynthia earned her CNM, she worked as a registered nurse in labor and delivery and postpartum and is a certified Doula and Doula trainer.