Expert: Sally Wendkos Olds - 1/29/2008

Question
Well my son is 7 months old and I have been exclusively breastfeeding him since he was born, I was wondering about my period! I haven't had one since i stopped bleeding after about five weeks right after he was born. I wanted to know how normal it is not to have a period, and just wanted more information along those lines.

Answer
Dear Erica,

First, congratulations for giving your son the best start in life by breastfeeding him!

It is perfectly normal for a nursing mom to suspend ovulation and menstruation as long as you are breastfeeding exclusively. I am attaching an excerpt from my book (see below) that explains this phenomenon.

Good luck!

Sally

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Sally Wendkos Olds
Author, THE COMPLETE BOOK OF BREASTFEEDING: Eiger & Olds, 3rd edition 1999, published by Workman Publishing & Bantam Books, and available in most public libraries, bookstores & La Leche League chapters. Now in revision for a fourth edition, with Laura M. Marks, M.D.
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  MENSTRUATION, OVULATION, AND PREGNANCY
Women who do not breastfeed usually begin to menstruate and ovulate within one to three months after childbirth, while nursing mothers may not resume their cycles for more than a year. Your baby's suckling at your breast maintains high levels of prolactin in your system for at least the first few months of exclusive breastfeeding. These quantities of prolactin tend to suppress the action of your ovaries, preventing them from producing the hormones that trigger ovulation, the periodical release of ova (eggs).
  Most women do not ovulate or menstruate at all while their babies are receiving no food other than breast milk and are suckling frequently, day and night, especially in the first few months after birth. If you are not releasing fertilizable eggs, you cannot become pregnant.
  Nursing mothers who give their babies no water, no solid foods, and no milk other than their own breast milk in the first six months, who continue breastfeeding frequently thereafter -- and who have not yet resumed menstruating -- have only a small likelihood of ovulating during this time. LAM, the Lactational Amenorrheal Method of birth control, is based on this premise.
  However, as soon as your baby takes any supplementary bottles or solid foods, the baby's suckling becomes less vigorous and the prolactin level in your system drops. When your baby does not nurse for long stretches of time (during the night, or during the day for working mothers), your prolactin levels also drop. When there is not enough prolactin in your body to inhibit your ovaries from functioning normally, you will again resume your regular ovulatory and menstrual cycles. And you will be fertile.
  There's a great deal of variability among women. One woman may have one "sterile" menstrual period before ovulation begins; that is, she may begin to menstruate but not yet be able to conceive. Another is fertile with her first menstrual period after childbirth. Some women don't begin to ovulate and menstruate for several months after their babies are completely weaned from the breast. Others ovulate even while they're fully lactating and before their menses resume.
  So while you are less likely to conceive when your baby is totally breastfed, you might become pregnant. Since it's impossible to tell when any particular woman will begin to ovulate, if you want to be sure to space your children you will want to use some kind of contraception. (Birth control for nursing mothers is discussed in Chapter 13.)