# Spotting/ bleeding while breastfeeding?



## Ratchet (Mar 24, 2011)

My DD2 is 4 mo and exclusively breastfed. Since 6 weeks postpartum, I have had bleeding/spotting, light to moderate, off and on. Like, 2 to 7 days of bleeding, with 1-4 days off in between. I'm not pregnant (neg UPT) and using condoms for birth control. With my DD1 my period came back early, like maybe after a few months, but she was an odd situation- I was pumping exclusively and she was premature and in the NICU for 3 mo. 

Because DD1 was early I got progesterone shots for DD2's pregnancy so that might be part of it.

I should see my OB but this seems hormonal to me and I don't want to take hormones to treat it. It's not an infection. Let's just be optimistic its not cancer? I also haven't met my deductible for the year and the visit/ultrasound/blood wok would all be a few hundred bucks out of pocket. I think I'd rather just hear about other people's experience?


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## rparker (Jul 15, 2008)

If you don't have pain or any other kind of abnormal discharge, it's probably hormonal. My guess is that the spotting is just an indication that your cycles are about to return. I had months/years of lactational amenorrhea with both of my kids, but several of my friends who EBF got their periods back between four and six months. When my periods did return, I had lots of spotting and they were irregular. So kind of sucks, but probably not anything to freak out about.


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## Yaliina (Oct 22, 2005)

I EBF'd both of my boys, and with both of them, my periods came back pretty quickly. We didn't have any strange circumstance, either- full term, healthy kids & mom (c-sections, though). DS1 nursed CONSTANTLY, and DS2 was only slightly less voracious. I think I had a few months- 3, if I recall correctly, of amenorrhea with DS1 before periods came back. They got pretty heavy & regular fairly quickly, too, until I finally got an IUD when he was about a year. I'm pretty sure I didn't actually get a month off with DS2. PP bleeding stopped at around 3-4 weeks, and I bled after my 6 week check. I did have an IUD after DS2, so my periods were only spotty for a couple of months, and then they vanished for a few years- but it was definitely the IUD, and not the EBF that did that. Everyone is different. If you're not having other symptoms, I wouldn't worry.


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## 1babysmom (May 22, 2006)

Yaliina said:


> I EBF'd both of my boys, and with both of them, my periods came back pretty quickly. We didn't have any strange circumstance, either- full term, healthy kids & mom (c-sections, though). DS1 nursed CONSTANTLY, and DS2 was only slightly less voracious. I think I had a few months- 3, if I recall correctly, of amenorrhea with DS1 before periods came back. They got pretty heavy & regular fairly quickly, too


Same story here. I have never gone longer than 7 months EBF'ing (that includes nursing around the clock on demand, co-sleeping, co-napping, no pacifiers (much to my dismay, for car rides LOL), etc). I actually got it back EARLIER (at 3 months PP) when I was nursing THREE!!! So it could definitely be your cycles trying to make their way back, and when it happens that close to the birth, I think it just makes it all that more confusing.


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