by donkishay (usa)

My son is almost 1 year old (his birthday is Dec 15th) and nursing full time. I haven’t started my period again yet, with my last two kids I started 6 months after I gave birth, but he is almost 1 and nothing.

I hoped that maybe I was pregnant, but I took 2 home pregnancy tests (months apart) and both said negative. I can’t seem to lose any weight and I feel like I need to eat all the time. It’s probably because my son nurses all the time… And still no period. Am I broken?

Answer:

I’m almost positive you’re not broken, and a lot of moms would say you’re pretty lucky! It’s normal for breastfeeding mothers to go without a period. It sounds like your little guy nurses very frequently, and we know that the more frequently a baby nurses, the more likely your hormones are to stop you from ovulating. If you don’t ovulate you generally won’t have periods.

On average women get about 14 months of lactational amenhorrhea (meaning no periods / being infertile due to breastfeeding).

Some women also don’t lose weight easily while their babies are nursing frequently. I agree with you and would guess that your hunger is due to your son nursing so much and your body needing the energy to make milk for him.

As your little one grows and begins to eat more solid foods your periods will probably return (and the weight will come off more easily). Some mothers do find that their periods don’t return until they wean, however.

Moms who desire to become pregnant when their babies reach toddlerhood sometimes find that reducing night nursing is enough to get their cycles going and have periods return.

If your son reduces nursing and you still don’t see your period return, you may want to have your midwife or doctor check you over to see if anything else is going on.