Attn:Anyone who has ever fallen pregnant while breastfeeding

Hi there,
I have a 9 1/2 month old daughter who is breastfed. As we were planning to have another baby fairly soon I have always wanted to wean her at 12 months but that is sneaking up really quickly and she is still really attatched to her "tit". I have heard that a lot of kids go off the breast by themselves once you get pregnant again and now that I'm about 7 weeks pregnant I was hoping that this will be true for my daughter.

If anyone has fallen pregnant while breastfeeding I would love to hear if your older child went off the breast and how pregnant you were when they did. That should give me some idea of how long I should wait before trying to wean her myself.

Thanks,
Erin

Hi Erin

I can't speak from my own personal experience but from what my mums told me. I was only 6 months old when she became pregnant with my sister. The main reason she suspected she was pregnant was because she was breastfeeding me and I wasn't feeding properly. She ended up being about 10 - 12 weeks pregnant when she found out, and thus this was also the time I went of the breast by myself.

Hi Erin

I have a 9 month old son who I'm still breastfeeding and we're planning on trying for another one soon. I talked to our child health nurse a couple of days ago and she said some babies wean themselves and others are happy to continue. A friend of mine is 22 weeks pregnant and still breastfeeding her 10 1/2 month old as he won't take formula or milk. The nurse told me as long as you are comfortable keep going as long as you want, you just have to make sure you look after yourself and get plenty of rest - easier said than done with a 9 month old I know!!! I was planning on breastfeeding my son until 12 months but as it gets closer I'm not so sure, as I don't want to rush him and he doesn't seem to want to give it up (still on 5-7 feeds per day). I would say just do whatever you feel comfortable with.

All the best
Jasmine

I fell pregnant in September when my son was 9 months old. He did not have any reaction to my pregnancy, but his last breast feed was on his first birthday. He had been having 2 feeds a day at that point (1 morning, 1 just b4 bed), on his first birthday his evening feed was not as eagerly accepted as usual so I decided to stop it then. No complaints from him, and he never even asked for any more. They do seem to give up when they're ready, though the pregnancy is harder when you're feeding too.