Expert: ruth kraft - 4/5/2011

Question
Hi, my son will be 1 year in 2 weeks, and I still nurse him. I have had 3 periods since he was born, the first in December, when he was 8 months old. the second 47 days later, and the third 32 days after that. I am waiting for period #4. I noted my calendar at 4 weeks to get an idea of when i could be due. But I still have not started. My question is, if my periods are not regular, then how would I know if i was late? Should i check for pregnancy? Or just keep waiting for it to start? I have had some minor stomach pains during the last week, as if I was about to start, but obviously nothing has come yet.

Answer
If you having symptoms of pregnancy then yes, you can check for it. although you may not be consciously weaning, your body has hormonal fluctuations based on how much the baby actually nurses  and interprets weaning as the baby getting ANYTHING other than breastmilk. Sp  you may have irregular periods until you have completely weaned. Every woman is different. If you are not trying to get pregnant, you should be careful as you most certainly can in this time frame. You can read a book called taking charge of your fertility to help prevent or get pregnant again. It is up to you if you want to take a test or wait a while and see. There is no sure fire way to tell for sure without a test.

I hope that helped :)