Thank you for reaching out to us. You have our greatest respect for addressing your challenging situation with such honesty and courage.

Mental health considerations that pose a potential danger to mother or baby are grounds for using contraception. In cases where the concerns do not reach the level of danger, they may still provide grounds for permissibility, depending on the specific situation. 

As you intuit, it is important to turn to rabbis who are well versed in mental health. It can often be beneficial to bring a note from your psychiatrist summarizing your situation and specific challenges related to conceiving at a given time, including concerns about medications.

Thankfully, more and more halachic authorities are receiving training in this area. Maaglei Nefesh is an organization devoted to issues of halacha and mental health. They offer consultations with qualified halachic authorities via telephone, zoom, or email.

At the moment it sounds like you have permission for the next number of months to continue to use birth control. If you still seek to use contraception after this time period, it would be legitimate to turn to another rav (for example, through Maaglei Nefesh) to ask about the permissibility of using contraception going forward – both because that would be a new halachic question and because you have reason to doubt that the first rav was fully conversant with the implications of your condition.

In the meanwhile, you may want to find ways to work on the issues that are stressing you, either alone or with professional help. Since you do want to start a family at the right time, you could also speak with your physician about the best practices and medication protocols for pregnancy with Bipolar Disorder.

This response was updated on 30 September, 2025.