Nishmat's Women’s Health and HalachaIn memory of Chaya Mirel bat R' Avraham

  • Hebrew
  • English
  • Espnaol
  • Francais
  • donate
Menu

Pill while nursing

17 May, 2006

Question:

I had a baby girl 4 weeks ago and have a little boy that is 2 yrs old. I am currently nursing full time and wanted some information on contraception.

With my son I took the mini pill and I became pregnant on it when my son was 15 months old. I was wondering if it would be safe to take a "regular" birth control pill and continue nursing my daughter, because I want to make sure that the contraception would be more effective.

Secondly, if the "regular" contraceptive is indeed ok, would I get my period during the 7 days of placebo pills?


Answer:

The minipill is recommended while breastfeeding as it is less likely to impact on milk supply. While combination pills are not dangerous for the infant, they can reduce the milk supply and thus are really not a first choice, especially in the early months of nursing.

As your chances of getting pregnant while fully nursing are markedly reduced in the first six months as long as you have not resumed menses, we would really recommend that you at least start with this progesterone only method of contraception – making sure to take at a consistent time each day. As we understand your concern about the mini pill not working the last time, you can then consider changing over to combination pills at about age six months. At this point your baby is ready for solids and thus, if you have reduced milk supply, solid food can help fill the gap.

An additional disadvantage of the combination pill is that you will most likely have withdrawal bleeding that starts during the placebo pills. Therefore, if you wait a few months until starting this method, you can take advantage of the lack of bleeding that generally accompanies the first number of months of nursing. Please do not hesitate to get back to us with further questions.


This internet service does not preclude, override or replace the psak of any rabbinical authority. It is the responsibility of the questioner to inform us of any previous consultation or ruling. As even slight variation in circumstances may have Halachic consequences, views expressed concerning one case may not be applied to other, seemingly similar cases. All health and health-related information contained within Nishmat's Women's Health & Halacha Web site is intended to be general in nature and should not be used as a substitute for consulting with your health care professional. The advice is intended to offer a basis for individuals to discuss their medical condition with their health care provider but not individual advice. Although every effort is made to ensure that the material within Nishmat's Women's Health & Halacha Web site is accurate and timely, it is provided for the convenience of the Web site user but should not be considered official. Advice for actual medical practice should be obtained from a licensed health care professional.

For further questions or comments: 

The Nishmat Women's Health and Halacha Site is a public service of Nishmat, The Jeanie Schottenstein Center for Advanced Torah Study for Women. This project and others like it are made possible by contributions from people like you. If you have benefited from the service, and wish to enable us to help others, click here to donate.


Users of Internet filtering services: This site discusses sensitive subjects that some services filter without visual indication. A page that appears 100% complete might actually be missing critical Jewish-law or medical information. To ensure that you view the pages accurately, ask the filtering service to whitelist all pages under yoatzot.org.


Accessibility Toolbar