3 Answers
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Recommendation: GET SOME! :)
The return of your fertility can be as soon as 4 weeks, whether or not you breastfeed. If you nurse a lot and your body is wired that way it can take two years or more for you to get your period back. But in either case - you might not have any advance warning, and just never get the period and - provided you're getting sex - just get pregnant.
Are you looking for a longer break between babies, or you think you might be done? Get an hormonal IUD (Mirena). With some luck you'll have the most unnoticable form of birth control and you might even skip having periods. It makes life very easy. Getting it installed is a bit unpleasant, but it's still worth it, and less of an unpleasant thing if you're still shrinking back from having a baby.
If you might have another baby in the next year or two or three, you might consider the minipill. It is low hormone dose, you keep taking one every day, and you still get your periods. You do need to be pretty compliant and take it roughly the same time every day (or if you miss, protect otherwise for a few days or so).
Or, buy condoms. AND USE THEM! Hide them in every room!
There are for sure also other forms of contraception like the patch, but I have heard of potential complications, so I'd stay away form that, even though it sounds really convenient.
You should really ask your doctor, because for each form of contraction there are also contraindications. If you've had pelvic inflammation, for example, the IUD is not for you. If you've had a stroke, no pill for you, and for smokers as well hormonal contraception options aren't so great. If you've had migraines or extreme mood swings on the pill, you might still be able to do well on the IUD, or not. Your doc can advise you best.
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If you are nursing you cannot use anything hormonal so condoms or a diaphragm are really your only options. But once you are finished I loved the NuvaRing. It's very effective and easy and it didn't take long once I stopped using it to get pregnant.
