Advice on Birth Control Methods

As a mother of nine children and an old fashioned Catholic who is constantly breastfeeding here is what I am doing now. I don't want to say birth control since I am always open to having children just fertility awareness. My youngest is 14 months and still nurses. I just started my period (thank goodness) but up until this point I had no tracking so I purchased the Lady Comp. This is an amazing little device that is a computer with a basal body thermometer. It has thousands of women's cycles programmed into it so when you take your temp every morning it gets to know your cycle and calculates fertile/non-fertile times. The basal body temp. taking was always an issue for me since you need to lay perfectly still and I always ended up getting up an forgetting but the Lady Comp has a built in clock so you can set an alarm to wake you up, take your temp and then go back to sleep. I also bought the Clear Blue Easy Fertility Monitor. We'll see:)

About me;
I am 40 years old, Married almost 20 years and mother of nine and a licensed midwife.

L.,
As another pro-life mama, our family practices Natural Family Planning as a means of achieving or avoiding a pregnancy. When practiced accordingly, it's 99% effective. I love that my husband and I have to communicate about my body and as I am learning, so is he. Also, NFP isn't reliant on a woman's cycle being predictable. (Mine certainly isn't!) Granted, NFP takes a little work, but it doesn't violate our beliefs and has opened up a whole new realm of communication with my husband and I (seriously, my husband now asks "how is your cycle today"?).

There are a number of different methods of NFP, but the one that we use is the Creighton Model, also referred to as the scientific method. If you're interested, I can give you a referral to a great NFP teacher in ABQ.

I was reading that birth control can mess with the thyroid. I too have taken birth control pills and now am having problems with my thyroid. It's hard, I am pro-life, too. The only thing I can tell you is good luck on choosing a birth control method. I don't use the pill so I just time when I am fertile and don't have sex. But that is hard, too when you want to be intimate with your husband. Me on the other hand I have problems with hormonal imbalance so I am regulating myself after having had a baby so, I try to becareful. Once again good luck and take care!

Not knowing exactly what your believes are... after my son was born I started taking Ortho Micronor. It's one of the "mini pills," low hormone and doesn't interfere with nursing. My son is now 15 months and I still nurse in the morning and before bed. After my daughter was born I didn't use anything because I was concerned about what effect it would have on nursing. I was surprised to find out that I was expecting my son (they're 19 months apart).

Good luck to you.

Hi L.,

I am not sure if you have found something that works for you yet. I would suggest just calculating when you will ovulate and avoiding intercourse during those few days. I am sure it is not 100% percent but it has worked every time for me. I googled a ovulation calculator, it goes by your last period..

I had the Mirena IUD. I wanted it removed after two years to try to have my third child. It was embedded in my uterine wall, and it took another year and surgery to have it removed. Two years later I'm still infertile.

Hi lori,

i just got an iud(mirena)about a month ago, i love it!! I went to a planned parenthood clinic and the nurse took as much time as i needed to explain everything to me. There are 2 types of iud's and i chose the mirena good for about 5 years. I was afraid at first but it can be taken out at anytime. But do check on it if you'd like. I haven't had any side effects. I took the pill for about 5 years and i felt moody and forgot to take it and then had to take 2 at once and it was just confusing at times. Good luck on your decision.

I don't trust any hormonal birth control with breastfeeding, so that leaves condoms, cervical cap, spermicide, diaphragm, and Paraguard the non-hormonal IUD. I have gotten pregnant from condoms and cervical cap and don't trust them. I didn't use spermicide with my cervical cap though. Although I have a lot of friends that have had success with the cervical cap.

Here's the femcap which your doctor can fax a prescription and you can order one online: http://www.femcap.com/

I too, was uncomfortable about the IUD's. My doctor put me on a mini-pill which is progestin only. There are several different brands out there. Your doctor can select the best one for you. But it is completely safe and I actually didn't have much of a period, which was a plus!

I would like to add a comment to Geri's response. Is she a doctor? What clinical findings does she have to support her statements? If she was so "pro-life" then why is she even using a condom? That's "spilling the life seed" so to speak. Furthermore, what does birth control have to do with prolife anyway? Birth control PREVENTS pregnancy for happening, not end it.

Sex isn't only for procreation. Enjoy it!

It sounds like my views are a lot like yours. My husband and I use condoms-very safe for breastfeeding and more effective (I think) than the low-dose pill that is safe for breastfeeding. Then when I start my period again, we pay close attention to when I'm supposed to ovulate. As long as we use a condom during that time (about a week-just to be safe) we're fine to go without one every other time. This worked for over 2 years with no unexpected pregnancy. And when we wanted to get pregnant again, we didn't have to deal with any problems from other birth control methods. Read "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" and that can help you pinpoint your ovualation to the day you ovulate.

About Mirena-I've considered that as well. It is the safest of the IUD's and it keeps the egg from being fertilized. The only thing that worries me is that if there is a pregnancy, the side effects are deformation and/or miscarriage. However, it is very, very rare to get pregnant with it.