Probably everyone knows that a woman does not have a period of lactation during a lactation period. But this knowledge, as a rule, everything is limited. And young mothers still have a lot of questions about menstruation during breastfeeding. When do menstruation begin during lactation? Can I continue to breastfeed if they still start? And many others. Therefore, we want to answer the most popular questions about monthly and lactation.
Can menstruation begin during breastfeeding?
Monthly during breastfeeding phenomenon is quite common. But women know very little about him.
The first 2 months after childbirth a woman may continue to have postpartum discharge. They are not as unrelated to menstruation and have only a purifying character. It often happens that postpartum discharges seem to have ended, and near the end of the second month, the woman again has bloody discharge. Often a woman can confuse them with menstruation, although in fact it is not. Just this way the body completes its purification.
At first glance, there is nothing dangerous in confusing menstruation and postpartum discharge. But at the same time, there are two significant nuances. Firstly, a woman can listen to "advisors" in the person of mother and grandmother, who will argue that once the periods have begun, then with breastfeeding the baby should be tied. More about this, we'll talk more. And secondly, if a woman finds that postpartum discharge is menstruation, then in a month, when according to all the rules of nature, menstruation should start again, will be greatly surprised and even frightened by her absence. Although in fact it should not be.
When can menstruation begin during breastfeeding?
Now let's talk about the timing of how long the lag time may last. The period of arrival of monthly varies greatly with time. Several centuries ago, when lactational amenorrhea was the only contraceptive and women breast-fed for at least 3 years, menstruation also began later, respectively, than in modern women. Now the period of arrival of menstrual periods is 6-12 months after childbirth (with WHO recommendations regarding breastfeeding). Up to 6 months, the baby should only eat mother's milk. After 6 months, supplementation is allowed. Here with the introduction of complementary foods and may coincide with the onset of menstruation. But you need to take into account the intensity of familiarizing the child with adult food, and the frequency of applying the baby to his chest.
If a child is not breastfed, but on a mixed one, menstruation may begin earlier than 6 months after childbirth. The same applies to early (before 6 months) introduction of complementary foods, or even usual dopaivaniya water.
But it should be noted that there are cases when, with full compliance with the WHO recommendations on the rules of breastfeeding, a woman starts early on a monthly basis. In this case, do not be nervous, maybe you just have big breaks between putting the baby on.
Do menstruation affect lactation?
And now let us return to the "useful advice". Modern scientists have proved that continuing to feed the baby with their milk with the arrival of menstruation is a useful and necessary thing. The taste of milk does not change at all, just like its nutritional properties. Judge for yourself, if the milk changed its taste to bitter (as mothers and grandmothers say about it), the child would refuse the breast independently. And the nature in that case has provided, that with approach of critical days milk would burn out in a breast. But it's not happening, is it? Means menses and feeding by a breast are quite comparable, and the nature in this case is incorporated to continue thoracal feeding, instead of to stop.