contraceptives

Lnsy

Ok, I've NEVER been on any kind of birth control, so I have NO IDEA about any of them out there.  I'm going to the doctor today for my 6 wk postpartum checkup and will be discussing birth control with him.  I'm also about to do my own little internet research, but...

Please tell me which birth control you're using and what you're experience has been.  Or, maybe you've had bad experiences with previous ones?

I know women react differently, but I'm still curious.  Thanks.

ohfour

We use Natural Family Planning, the Marquette Method (charting cervical mucous and using a clearblue easy fertility monitor). So far, it's working great, but my fertility hasn't returned yet.

ETA: This is our birth control, but I realize not contraceptives like you asked, so feel free to ignore

gy86

I've tried almost all the types of birth control and haven't liked any of them... I am also somewhat bad about using contraceptives consistently... hence the baby... but I think the most important factor for moms is whether or not you are breastfeeding, and how the birth control will affect your milk supply. 

Most hormonal birth control pills, patches, shots, etc can cause decreases in supply.  I've heard of a "mini pill" that a lot of moms use, and the other option is a copper IUD, which seems to cause women a lot of cramping and heavier periods but I have a friend that loves hers.  So I guess it really depends.

My previous experience with birth control pills (I have tried the tri-phasic and monophasic ones) is that they made me kind of emotional.  I didn't notice bloating or weight gain while on them like a lot of women do; just felt like I was a little out of whack, probably from the hormones.  A lot of people tend to like Ortho Tri-Cyclin Lo, which has a lower hormone dose and therefore less noticable side effects, but I'm horrible about remembering to take something at the same time every day.

The patches are convenient & great if you don't want to have to remember to take a pill every day, but they leave this scummy residue along the edge that takes days to wash/pick off, which bugged me.

I did depo-provera shots in high school for a couple years and those were cool in that they completely get rid of your period after a few months of light spotting, and you only have to go in 4x a year for injections.  But it's pretty hardcore and has a lot more long-term side effects; things like depression and bone density loss so I decided not to do those long term.

And condoms... ugh.  Don't even get me started with condoms. 

Jay_Cee

I've been on numerous types of BC and have had horrible experiences with them. I have every symptom in the book and then some. I have worse PMS on the pill than off it. If I don't take my pill within an hour of my daily time to take it, I get breakthrough bleeding for days.

So I stopped and started charting my basal body temps and cervical mucus to figure out when I ovulated. The Mr. and used condoms (or withdrawal, which I don't recommend if you don't want the possibility of an 'oops' baby) during my fertile time. This book and/or this website will teach you all about that.

Now that I'm breastfeeding I'm on the mini pill, which I love. Apparently I have issues with the estrogen in the regular pills, but no issues with the progesterone. So I'm doing this pill for now.

You could always try out a pill and see how your body reacts to it if you are good at taking medicine at the same exact time every day. There's also the IUD, which I know a lot of women love. Charting is awesome -- I really love it. However, I don't trust it 100% with my new sleep schedule and breastfeeding, so I'm not doing it for now. Maybe once Adele sleeps through the night and is weaned we'll go back.

I hope you find something you like!

MilMom2B

Several of my friends have used Nuvaring. Because it's a continuous centralized dose of the hormone it tends to have less of the side effects than the pills. For my friends, this has been the case. Weight gain, extra emotions, etc. became non-issues for them. And I know a few women who use it while BF and don't have supply issues.

For me, however, this was not the case. I can't use a traditional bc pill with estrogen in it because it causes terrible migraines for me. I tried the nuvaring since so many people I know found that they didn't get those side effects, but within days I started getting migraines. And it almost immediately lessened my milk supply! Luckily, within days of getting off of it my migraines went away and my milk supply beefed up again.

I've had great success with POPs in the past. In fact I was on them for 5 years of marriage without getting pregnant (and although, yes, I am very good at taking it every day, I don't take it within the same hour of time every day). So that is what I'll be trying now, since it's not supposed to affect milk supply since there's no estrogen in it, and I know from experience that it doesn't worsen my migraines.

I also have a couple of friends with mirena or other IUDs and they all say they love them. But, that wasn't the route for me so I don't have any personal experience.