After a baby, your period comes back on its own schedule. How you feed your baby matters more than anything else. Formula can bring it back within weeks. Breastfeeding can hold it off for months.
When does your period come back after giving birth?
The NHS says it’s hard to be exact, because everyone is different. It still gives two rough answers, one for each way of feeding. Mixed means breast and bottle, and breastfeeding only means day and night with no bottles.
| How you feed | First period |
|---|---|
| Formula or mixed | As soon as 5 to 6 weeks after the birth |
| Breastfeeding only | Often not until you breastfeed less |
Australia’s Pregnancy Birth and Baby service gives a similar figure of 4 to 6 weeks if you bottle feed. It says that if you only breastfeed, your first period may take several months. Healthdirect goes further and says it can be years.
Is the bleeding after birth a period?
No. Everyone bleeds after giving birth, whether the baby came vaginally or by c-section. That bleeding is called lochia. The NHS says it’s quite heavy at first, so you’ll need super-absorbent pads. It carries on for a few weeks, turns brownish and slowly stops. It can get redder and heavier while you breastfeed, because feeding makes the womb contract.
Lochia is your womb healing. Your cycle hasn’t restarted yet, so don’t count the end of it as a period. Pregnancy Birth and Baby says the womb can take up to 2 months to get back to its usual size. If the bleeding gets heavier rather than lighter within 6 weeks of the birth, call your doctor or go to the emergency department.
Getting your period while breastfeeding at 2, 3, 4 or 6 months
All of these are normal. There’s no month when a breastfeeding period counts as early or late. Healthdirect says the timing depends on how often and how long your baby feeds, and on how sensitive your body is to the hormones that make milk. Your period is likely to come back when one of these happens:
- your baby feeds less often, or for shorter times
- you start giving bottles or formula top-ups
- your baby sleeps for longer stretches, or through the night
- your baby starts solid food
None of those happens at a fixed age, so a first period at 3 months and one at 9 months are both ordinary. Healthdirect also says hormone changes around your period can change how your baby wants to feed for a few days.
What is the first period after birth like?
Nobody can tell you ahead of time. Pregnancy Birth and Baby says there’s no way to know whether your periods will come back the way they were before the pregnancy. Some people notice a different kind of period pain. That’s worth mentioning to your doctor, along with what you can take for it while you breastfeed.
Expect the first few cycles to be uneven while you’re still making milk. Healthdirect says it’s not unusual to skip a period, or to wait a few months for the next one. Your periods should settle as you breastfeed less. So a 35-day gap followed by a 60-day gap isn’t a sign that something is wrong. The guide to irregular periods goes through the other common causes.
Can you get pregnant before your first period?
Yes, and this is the part that catches people out. You ovulate about 2 weeks before a period, so the first egg arrives before the first bleed. The NHS says you can get pregnant as soon as 3 weeks after the birth, even if you’re breastfeeding and your period hasn’t come back. It advises starting contraception within 21 days of the birth.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says that ovulation may happen within a few weeks if you aren’t breastfeeding. If you are, it’s usually back by about 6 months. ACOG also describes the lactational amenorrhea method, which relies on breastfeeding to hold off ovulation. It only works for 6 months after the birth, or until your period comes back, whichever is first. A period-tracking app can’t tell you when that first ovulation happens, so it isn’t birth control either.
When to see a doctor
Healthdirect says to talk to your doctor about your periods if you have any of these:
- a change in your usual pattern, or irregular periods
- spotting or bleeding between periods that keeps happening
- heavier bleeding than normal
- long periods, or painful periods
- bleeding after sex
Uneven cycles while you’re still breastfeeding are expected. Heavy bleeding isn’t. The guide to how long a period lasts explains when a period counts as long or heavy. And if your periods haven’t come back months after you’ve stopped breastfeeding, see your doctor.
How Plum handles the months after a baby
We make Plum, a period tracker app for iPhone, so this part is about our own app. Plum has no pregnancy or postpartum mode. You don’t need to log the bleeding after birth. When your first real period starts, log that day and Plum counts your cycle from there.
Plum predicts from a rolling median of your recent cycles, so the long gap before your first period doesn’t stretch every later prediction. When your cycles vary a lot, which they will for a while, it shows a window instead of a single date. Spotting has its own log, so a light bleed doesn’t start a new cycle by mistake. The guide to what counts as day 1 of your period explains where that line sits. Plum shows no ads and never sells personal data.
