QuestionI am breastfeeding my son who is 3 months old,exclusively. He nurses about 8-10 times in a 24 hour period. My husband and I have not used any protection recently. I have not had a period since giving birth to my son so I have no idea if or when I ovulated. Last week I had some light watery pink spotting Monday morning just when I wiped and a heavy feeling with a very slight crampy feeling in my abdomen. It was the same for Tuesday then nothing for Wed and Thursday then again with an even smaller amount on Friday then nothing since then. I have also been feeling really dizzy and tired with the occasional mild headache. I have taken a First Response Early detection HPT this morning (one weed after the FIRST day of spotting) and it was negative. Do you think it could have been implantation bleeding? When should I do another HPT test since I have no idea when I may have ovulated or when my period would have been due?
AnswerDear Melodie,
Breastfeeding is often nature's own method of birth control and usually women do not ovulate or have periods while exclusively breastfeeding. However, even if you are breastfeeding on demand without any supplementation, your baby is less than six months old, and there has been no return of a period, there is still a 1-2% chance of pregnancy.
After the initial two post-partum cycles, two consecutive days of bleeding/spotting OR the woman's perception that her period has returned (whichever of the two comes first) should be considered an indication that fertility is returning. A woman CAN ovulate before her period returns. The spotting may have been a bit of ovulation bleeding, some hormonal spotting, a light first period, or possibly implantation bleeding. Because of this, I would recommend that you rule out a pregnancy and, if not pregnant, assume your fertility has returned and begin using a back-up form of birth control if you are not wanting to conceive again right away.
I would suggest waiting another 5-7 days and testing again. If those results are negative, you can either wait another 7-10 days and re-test again or have your doctor's office do a quantitative blood pregnancy test (serum beta hCG). That test will give an actual amount of hCG in your bloodstream rather than just a positive/negative result. Any amount of 25 mIU/ml or more would be considered positive for pregnancy.
I hope this has helped you and answered your question. I wish you well and a Merry Christmas.
Brenda
