Methods of Birth Control for After Baby

After the birth of a child, the mother is going through many different emotional and hormonal changes. While some new mothers are completely disinterested in sex, there are others who crave it. The mothers who do want to have sex, soon after the new baby, sometimes just want to express the love they feel for the partners who created the new life with them as a celebration of intimacy. I cannot begin to count how many women I have known who became pregnant again within a few weeks after childbirth. Fortunately, there are methods to prevent this, if prevention is what the new mother wants.

Obviously, abstinence is the best method to avoid pregnancy. After childbirth, it may be easier to abstain from sex while the body heals from the trauma of vaginal delivery. However, after a few weeks, the time might just seem right, and sex may be desired by both parties, although sometimes a woman may want to simply please her husband. That was why I started having sex again, after the birth of my first child. I was actually scared, but it went well. When I went to my doctor for my six-week checkup, I received a stern lecture and a prescription for birth control, since my breast milk had inexplicably stopped at four weeks.

Of course, there is also the condom. While it is no more foolproof than any other method, this is a safe method of birth control to mothers who are nursing, as it adds no hormones to her system or to the baby's. Fortunately, for those ladies who have latex allergies (I am one of them), there are condoms that are available in non-latex materials, such as polyurethane and polyisoprene, or lamb intestines (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condom). If none are available in the local drugstores, it is easy to find a supplier on the Internet. Such websites are: www.condom.com/nonlatex.html, www.condomman.com/page/C/CTGY/Non-Latex-Condoms and www.ripnroll.com/Poly-Rips.htm, to name a few.

For breastfeeding mothers there is the "Lactational Amenorrhea Method (LAM)" as a method of birth control. To follow this method, the nursing mother must breastfeed her baby every four hours during the day and every six hours at night (http://www.pregnancy-period.com/pregnancybirthcontrol.html). There is no pumping allowed, and the child must not be consuming anything other than breast milk, and the child must be under six months old, and his mother cannot have had a return of her menstrual periods(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactational_amenorrhea_method). According to Wikipedia, this method has only a 1% failure rate.

Mothers who choose to breastfeed also have the option of using a progestin-only birth control pill, or "mini-pill." The "mini-pill" is does not have estrogen within it, nor do they actually have progestogens, "but they have chemical they do not actually contain progesterone, but one of several chemically related compounds and there are a number of progestogen only contraceptive formulations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progestogen_only_pill)." Estrogen comes through the breast milk to the baby and can alter the production of breast milk (http://www.pregnancy-period.com/pregnancybirthcontrol.html). This is why it could be an option for a new mother.

For women who either choose to not breastfeed or who simply do not want to do so, there is the option of going straight back to birth control pills that contain both progestin and estrogen. Since there is no chance of the hormones entering the baby's system, it is a viable option. Many women are able to get their cycles to return to normal with birth control, as well as inhibiting ovulation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_oral_contraceptive_pill).

Another option of birth control is the intrauterine device, or IUD. There are some that are hormone-free, and there are some that will release hormones into the body to inhibit pregnancy. The hormone-free IUDs are things like sponges, female condoms and Paraguard. Paraguard is made from copper which is toxic to sperm. It is able to stay in place for ten years, and it does not seem to inhibit pregnancy after removal (http://www.webmd.com/sex/birth-control/intrauterine-device-iud-for-birth-control).

An IUD that uses hormones is Mirena. It releases a hormone called levonorgestrel damages or kills sperm and makes the mucus in the cervix very thick and sticky, so sperm cannot get past. Also, it makes the lining of the uterus from growing thick, so eggs will be less likely to attach to it n(http://www.webmd.com/sex/birth-control/intrauterine-device-iud-for-birth-control and http://www.drugs.com/pro/mirena.html).

There is another form of birth control called withdrawal or coitus interruptus. However, it is not as reliable as the aforementioned methods, since there is the high possibility of pre-ejaculate (which carries spermatozoa) or poor timing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coitus_interruptus). This is not a recommended method. In fact, when this was the method that I once told my doctor that I was using, he immediately asked me if I was pregnant, to drive the point home. As a matter of fact, I know several women who became pregnant with this method.

Finally, there is the tubal ligation. Also known as having your tubes tied, this "is a permanent form of female sterilization, in which the fallopian tubes are severed and sealed or "pinched shut", in order to prevent fertilization (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tubal_ligation)." It is an effective method of birth control if the mother does not want to have any more children. While there is a process of reversal, this does not always work. Also, many physicians will refuse to perform this procedure if the woman is under thirty years of age and/or does not have any children (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tubal_ligation). I had my tubes tied, four years ago, and I have had no problems or pregnancies, since.

In today's world, there are so many methods from which to choose. While all of the aforementioned methods have reasonably high success rates, there are the few who fall into the percentage for which some methods fail. As always, I advise anyone to research the options and discuss them with her doctor. Learn about the pro's and the con's and choose the option that works best. Remember, different things work for different people. Also, do not forget that immediately after the baby, it is still possible to get pregnant. Just because it may be the farthest thing from mind does not mean that it is not an immediate concern. Happy Health.

Sources:

Personal Experience.
http://www.drugs.com/pro/mirena.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coitus_interruptus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_oral_contraceptive_pill
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactational_amenorrhea_method
http://www.breastfeeding.com/reading_room/lam_page2.html
http://www.pregnancy-period.com/pregnancybirthcontrol.html
http://www.webmd.com/sex/birth-control/intrauterine-device-iud-for-birth-control
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progestogen_only_pill
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tubal_ligation