Pregnancy Spacing and Risk

HouseSpouse

Can anyone offer any advice or knowledge on this? It seems like any research I do points to waiting at least 12 months before TTC again to avoid health risks to myself or baby, primarily an increased risk of Autism. Did any of you have any additional screening during your pregnancies or were your doctors at all concerned with the spacing?

I'm curious because I have a 4 month old and recently thought I might be preggo again even though I'm on BC - I'm not, but that got me thinking that maybe I would like to start trying again. Pretty much everyone thinks this is crazy and maybe they are right? Haha. My main concern would be health risks because I had a C-Section in November of last year.

Thanks in advance for any insight!

Lida1182

I got pregnant with #2 (DS) when my 1st was only 6 months old, I had discussed TTC at my 6wk follow up and my OB didn't have any concerns. I did not do any additional testing. I am pregnant with #3, since DS was 8mos old and did not do any testing either. They are 2 1/2 and 16mos and no signs of Autism( although I am unaware close age is a risk for it) I had 2 vaginal births so far, my only concern for you would be healing but something to discuss with your OB for sure. Hope that helps!

JamiMarieB

I had my son April 2014 and my next is due October 2015! They are going to be 18 months apart, so not as soon as you're talking. At my 6 week check up, I talked to my OB about trying when my son was 5-6 months old. She didn't seem concerned at all. I would just ask your OB! Good luck

bookworm982

My first two are 13 months apart, and I didn't experience any complications from having them so close together. My next two are 18.5 months apart, and again everything was smooth sailing. I even managed to nurse during pregnancies #2 and #3, and I tandem nursed DD and DS1 for 6 months. (DS1 weaned before DS2 was born, so no tandem nursing this time around.) We'll probably have 2u2 one or two more times because we still don't feel like our family is complete, and we love the close age gaps.

I don't know how a c-section would affect close pregnancies because all of mine were vaginal deliveries. That is something you should discuss with your doctor. As far as autism goes, I have one brother on the high functioning end of the spectrum (shared just so you know we do have a family history), but so far none of my children show any signs of autism. So little is known about the causes of autism that I'm not worried about the correlation with close spacing at all. There are pros and cons to any family spacing pattern, and ultimately each family has to decide what is best for them.

femmepink

I read that, too.

I won't lie, it did factor into my decision to wait until closer to 12 months postpartum before conceiving my second.  We ended up waiting 11 months, which I felt comfortable with.