In this article you will get to know if you can take contraceptives while breastfeeding. If you have more questions you can let us know in the comments box. Updated
Can I Take Contraceptives While Breast Feeding
Up to 3 weeks one is completely protected against pregnancy. Those who are fully breast feeding, but having menstruation are protected upto 6 months with a failure rate of about 2%.
So by this we understand that upto 3 weeks we do not require any contraception. When we divide the contraception to hormonal and non-hormonal, hormonal is the copper T, intrauterine contraceptive device.
It should be inserted within 48 hours of delivery or it should be inserted 4 weeks after delivery. Coming to hormonal, we have 2 varieties here.
Either it contains only progesterone or it contains both estrogen and progesterone. Progesterone only contraception should be used only after 3 weeks because of bleeding problem it causes.
After that it can be used any time because it has been proved that it is not going to affect the breast milk volume.
Coming to estrogen and progesterone combined pills, upto 6 weeks it is not recommended because its safety while breast feeding is not getting established is not known.
Between 6 weeks to 6 months, if she is fully breast feeding, better to avoid combined contraceptive pills because of insufficient evidence or because of effect of estrogen on the breast milk volume.
If she is partially breast feeding, that means she is not giving any night feeds, or she is using top feeds, one can start using combined pills from 6 weeks itself and a lot has been proved that this estrogen and progesterone not have any effect on the infant growth.