Things To Consider When TTC While Breastfeeding A Child Under 1

Breastfeeding goals 

Something I  would consider if you are going to try to conceive while breastfeeding with a child under a year is to consider if you become pregnant with a sustaining pregnancy, there is a chance you could loose your milk during early pregnancy, middle, and for a few moms, it seems not at all. If you lose it early on, will you become okay not breastfeeding to a year, are you fine to use formula, do you have pumped milk already stash to get you to the 12-month mark and whether or not making it to a year of exclusive breastfeeding is important to you or not. These goals are of course different for every mom, but a child under 1 needs breastmilk or formula through the first year.

check iron levels

Also, if you plan on having pregnancies close together, make sure to take an iron supplement and/or consume a diet rich in iron and Vitamin C to prevent anemia. Some experts recommend taking at least 27 mg of iron each day for women trying to conceive and women who are pregnant. Having two or more pregnancies close together can mean starting off your pregnancy without sufficient stores of iron. Some other material says you could be at risk for an iron deficiency if you have kids under 2 years apart. It is also said that it takes several months to correct an iron deficiency.  

What if my prenatal vitamins have iron, doesn't that mean I am fine?

Personally, I would still get your iron levels checked by a health care provider, even if you are taking prenatal vitamins with iron, to see if your reserve has been restored after having a baby not that long ago. It's also possible to be deficient in something you are taking. I've been taking prenatal vitamins since I was 19 and mine all have had Vitamin D. I've always gotten plenty of sunlight between running in high school and playing outside with my children when I became a mom and I found out at 26, I was still deficient in vitamin D. I never considered I was, because I had been taking supplements long term. But it turns out I need more than what the prenatal can give me alone. Even if it turns out you don't need it, you'll have that peace of mind of knowing you're definitely fine in that area.

My third pregnancy was conceived when my second child was 21.5 months old. My midwives say that there is usually a time where iron dips in pregnancy around the 2nd trimester and that is normal. My OB  does the standard iron check, however, unlike the midwives he doesn't do another check to see if the iron has returned to normal after the dip. My midwives had me have him check again to compare the results from his first finding and in 4 months my iron had dropped further from the results of the 2nd-trimester test. My results for iron were 11.6 in October 2015 and was 9.6 Feb 12, 2016. And that was with taking a prenatal that had iron in it the entire pregnancy. Through my pregnancy, I had mostly taken these 4 prenatal vitamins,  Mega Food Baby & Me Prenatal (18 mg of iron), Rainbow Light Prenatal One Multivitamin (30 mg of iron), Rainbow Light Prenatal  Organic Multivitamin (18 mg of iron), and Nature Made Multi-Prenatal (28 mg of iron). Going back and seeing the recommended amount of the 27 mg and how much my prenatal had post pregnancy, 2 out of 3 of my natural prenatal vitamins did not have enough iron in them. 

Pregnancy & delivery risks

It is often recommended that a woman's body needs 18 - 23 months between birth and subsequent conception. The World Heath Organization in 2014 recommended spacing between two and five years (Fetters).  If another child is conceived before 18 months, there are risks of premature birth, low birth weights, and newborn death (Close Pregnancies Increase Risks). According to Women's Health article, How Having Babies Close Together Affects Your Body, "Babies conceived less than 6 months after their siblings had a 40% increased risk of being born prematurely and a 61% increased risk of low birth weight, compared to women who conceived 18 months later" (Fetters).

Baby Your Baby 

One concern trying to conceive mothers have after they become pregnant with a sustaining pregnancy is the thought of how their only child or youngest child will feel being displaced as the baby. That will be a personal question that only you can answer if you feel your child has had enough time being the baby in the family, before adding a new sibling to the picture.

However, the final decision of when to have more children is between a couple.

- Bibliography -

"Close Pregnancies Increase Risks." WebMD. WebMD, LLC, 7 Aug. 2003. Web. 11 Jan. 2016. <http://www.webmd.com/baby/news/20030807/close-pregnancies-increase-risks>.

Fetters, K. Aleshia. "How Having Babies Close Together Affects Your Body." Women's Health. Rodale Inc, 30 June 2014. Web. 11 Jan. 2016. <http://www.womenshealthmag.com/mom/pregnancy-close-together-risks>.