by R.L Hanlon

Created on: July 30, 2008

Many women take for granted how quickly our bodies recover after childbirth. Once your body knows it can conceive a child and go through the experience of pregnancy and birth, it can sometime be immediate that it's ready to do it all again.

Due to many reasons after childbirth, the time in which a woman ovulates can differ from one to the next. Following is a look at the many scenarios that will determine how soon after childbirth a woman will commence ovulation.

GETTING BACK TO NORMAL

Over the past nine months of pregnancy the body has undergone many changes. In order to make these changes happen, the hormones in the body secrete more hormones than usual and do amazing things to allow the body to accommodate a baby.

Once baby is born the body needs to re-adjust to the way it was before pregnancy. How much time it takes to do so depends on each individual woman.

THE RETURN TO NORMAL MENSTRUATION

After childbirth, most women bleed for a number of weeks. It can be hard to distinguish when your menstruation has begun a new cycle because of this reason. The majority finds that they will bleed for sometime after childbirth, which will then lessen, and then they'll notice they bleed again. This second bleeding period is normally the beginning of the next menstruation cycle and occurs somewhere between six and eight weeks after delivery.

When you visit your doctor for your six-week check up, they will usually ask you about what method of birth control you intend to use from that moment.

BREASTFEEDING OR BOTTLEFEEDING?

When you ovulate and menstruate after a delivery also depends on whether you're breastfeeding your baby or bottle-feeding. If you intend to breastfeed, a hormone is released during the process, which inhibits another that can sometimes stop ovulation occurring.

Breastfeeding is not a safe method of contraception and one should never assume that it is. Every woman's hormones act differently, during a pregnancy and after delivery.

OVULATION AFTER CHILDBIRTH

When considering all of the above and keeping in mind that all women are different, ovulation can occur anytime after childbirth. It is common for a woman to ovulate before she has commenced a normal cycle of menstruation, even after childbirth.

In other words, you still may be ovulating even though you have not yet had a normal period.

After childbirth, a woman can begin ovulating immediately or some much later depending on hormones and breastfeeding factors. Breastfeeding is never a reliable method of contraception, so don't believe you will not conceive a child if you are. Although or bodies may be recovering from a recent birth, our reproductive system continue to prepare for the next.

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