by Michelle Stein posted in Parenting

When it comes to fertility, I've been incredibly lucky. I conceived each of my three children within a month or two of deciding, "Yeah, let's do this." But this time around" I've been TTC for six months so far and still, no dice.
And I blame breastfeeding.
See, kid number three was particularly attached to the boob. And breastfeeding -- especially when done exclusively, on-demand, for the first six months -- interferes with the release of the hormones needed to trigger ovulation.
In other words, the more a mom nurses, the less likely she is to ovulate. Makes sense, right" Every once in a while, though, you'll hear those "horror" stories of EBF moms unintentionally conceiving a few weeks after giving birth -- all because they banked on breastfeeding as a natural contraceptive. (Spoiler alert: It's not 100-percent effective.)
One thing I've kept telling myself since September is that plenty of women have gotten pregnant once their nurslings started breastfeeding less often. But for me, apparently, breastfeeding is a rock-solid, reliable method of birth control until my kiddos are completely weaned. It doesn't matter that my toddler has been eating table food with the rest of the family for nearly a year. Or that I had started my period (sans ovulation, obviously.) Or that I had dwindled down nursing sessions to one or two per day. Nope. Evidently, my body refuses to ovulate if there's any hint of ...