Menstruation, Your Period and Ovulation After Baby

Blood Loss Immediately After Birth

Immediately following the birth of your baby, your blood loss will be bright red and slightly heavier than a normal period – though it shouldn’t exceed a sanitary pad every 4 hours. If it does exceed this, advise your midwife or doctor. The loss and blood flow will decrease over the next week, and the colour will alter to a paler red, then a brownish-red colour. The discharge (also known as lochia) may then become yellow-white in colour before it ceases. You will notice an odour, which is strong but not offensive. While the blood flow should stop after a week or so, light blood loss may last for around 6 weeks after the birth and is not a cause for concern – it differs for each woman. If worried, contact your midwife or doctor for advice.

It is important that you use sanitary pads and not tampons after the birth of your baby. Tampons obstruct the blood flow and can encourage the growth of bacteria, which could lead to infection. Make sure you change your pad every four hours (or more if required) as bacteria can build up quite quickly, particularly in lochia.

Some women prefer to use the thicker, maternity pads initially, as they are more padded and protective. When you are ready, you can always switch to ultra thin pads.

You should see your doctor if you notice any of the following:

• A persistent red discharge
• Large blood clots
• Sudden bright blood loss
• Offensive discharge / odour, or,
• A tender uterus

The Return Of Your Period

Of those who choose not to breastfeed, approximately 80% of women find their period has returned by ten weeks. Breastfeeding can delay menstruation and ovulation for around 20 weeks or more, however it is not uncommon to find your period returning sooner or much longer than 20 weeks.

Every woman and her hormone levels are very unique, so it’s difficult to say when a period will recommence after childbirth. Some women find their period will return the very next month following birth and at the other end of the scale, some women wont have menstruated until well after twelve months. I found it to be even longer than this! I breastfed my first born until she was a little over two and then fell pregnant with baby number two. I didn’t get my period until my second born was 20 months, when all overnight feeds had stopped (he liked his boobies).

It is also common to have heavier periods than normal when they do resume, for months on end. Some women find that their first periods after baby are so heavy that they use both pads and tampons due to the flow. You can read a forum discussion HERE about heavy periods after baby.

Find out when BellyBelly members found their period to return post-natally HERE, which includes a poll as well as a discussion. Please bear in mind though that the results are based on both breastfeeding mothers and bottlefeeding mothers feeding at various intervals or baby-led – so the results are a mix of all these scenarios.

It’s important to note that ovulation and menstruation doesn’t exclusively happen together – you may have your period without ovulation or you may ovulate and THEN get your first period shortly after – so you may not know that you are ovulating yet, which is how some women get caught out falling pregnant by surprise!

When Will I Ovulate Again?

The chance that you will ovulate in the first six weeks post-birth is extremely low. When you see your Obstetrician for your six week post-birth appointment, this is a good time to discuss starting contraceptives if you wish to do so.

When a baby breastfeeds, the sucking sends signals to the pituitary to release prolactin. If you breastfeed frequently enough so that there are high enough levels of prolactin (of which the threshold is unique for each woman), ovulation can be suppressed.

Exactly when you resume ovulating is hard to estimate. The longer you continue to breastfeed and the lesser feeds your baby has (as baby becomes older), this increases your chance of ovulation. For some women, they may not ovulate until they stop breastfeeding altogether.

A good way to find out if you might be ovulating while breastfeeding or in general is by observing your cervical mucus – see this article about cervical mucus observations. When my first born was two and still occasionally breastfed, I learnt about cervical mucus observations. One day soon after that, I noticed that I had highly fertile mucus, so I was able to spot that I was ovulating again. As a result, I was able to fall pregnant with my second child on that cycle. Of course, mucus observation can be used as a tool to avoid conception as well as acheiving it. You can also use other tools to confirm ovulation, for example when you have fertile mucus, try using an ovulation prediction test kit or charting your temperatures.

Breastfeeding can be a good contraceptive (approximately 2% failure rate), as long as all of the following apply to you:

• Your baby is exclusively breastfed (or very close to)
• Baby is less than six months old
• If you have not yet had a normal menstural period since birth
• Breastfeeds are no longer than 4-6 hours apart

Kelly Zantey is a birth attendant (aka doula) the creator of BellyBelly, mum to two beautiful children and has just opened the BellyBelly Pregnancy Centre in Canterbury, VIC.

To read more post-natal articles, please click here.