How long does it take for ovulation to resume after breastfeeding?

Generally speaking, women need to recover their bodies through confinement after giving birth, and their ovulation function will only be restored after a certain period of time. If the mother needs to breastfeed after giving birth, her ovulation function will resume around 18 weeks.

Postpartum menstruation recovery

From a medical point of view, based on the tissue morphology of the endometrium, the ovaries may be able to ovulate as early as 33 to 42 days after delivery. In addition, the presence of a corpus luteum after ovulation can also be observed 6 weeks after delivery. Therefore, if the mother does not breastfeed, menstruation usually comes within 6 to 8 weeks after delivery. Research data show that 40% of non-breastfeeding mothers resume ovulation 6 weeks after delivery; by 8-12 weeks after delivery, only about 35% of mothers have not resumed ovulation and menstruation. About 25% of breastfeeding mothers will resume ovulation and menstruation 12 weeks after delivery, and most breastfeeding mothers usually take until 18 weeks to fully resume ovulation function. However, it is sometimes difficult to clinically determine the exact time of the first menstrual period after delivery, and a small number of women will begin to have intermittent bleeding of small to moderate amounts immediately after delivery.

Breastfeeding mother's menstruation

For new mothers who breastfeed their babies, ovulation and menstruation will resume later, and some may not have their period until a year later. For most people, their first menstrual period is heavier than usual, but their second period becomes normal, so no treatment is needed.

When menstruation comes, the amount of milk a breastfeeding mother produces generally decreases, and the quality of the protein and fat in the breast milk also changes slightly, with the protein content being higher and the fat content being lower. This milk sometimes causes indigestion symptoms in babies, but this is a temporary phenomenon and will return to normal after the menstrual period. Therefore, mothers do not need to stop breastfeeding whether during or after menstruation.

Even if you don't have menstruation, you still need to use contraception

New mothers in the postpartum period can get pregnant even if they do not have their period. Because whether or not a woman can get pregnant depends on whether or not she ovulates. The resumption of ovulation is not necessarily synchronized with the resumption of menstruation, especially in the first few cycles after the resumption of menstruation, which are often menstrual cycles without ovulation. However, many people begin to ovulate before the resumption of menstruation, especially women who are not breastfeeding, whose ovulation often resumes earlier. Therefore, if a mother has sexual intercourse during breastfeeding, she may become pregnant at any time because ovulation has resumed. According to statistics, half of women who conceive during breastfeeding conceive before the return of their menstruation. Therefore, as soon as you start having sexual intercourse after childbirth, you should take contraceptive measures.