Postpartum Fertility Awareness Charting (Episode 445)

Full Transcript: Episode 445

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: This is the Fertility Friday Podcast, episode number 445.

Welcome to the Fertility Friday Podcast, your source for information about the fertility awareness method and all things fertility. I’m your host, Lisa Hendrickson-Jack. I’m the author of The Fifth Vital Sign and the Fertility Awareness Mastery Training Workbook. I’m a certified fertility awareness educator and holistic reproductive health practitioner with over 20 years of experience teaching women to connect to their fifth vital sign through menstrual cycle charting, balancing hormone health and optimizing the menstrual cycle without hormones. I have been consistently outspoken about hormonal birth control over the past two decades and its impact on fertility and overall health because you have the right to know how your body works and how artificial hormones disrupt that natural process. I teach women’s health professionals how to utilize the menstrual cycle as a vital sign in their practices, and I host live coaching programs to help you achieve optimal fertility and health because it’s important to have healthy menstrual cycles regardless of whether or not you want to have babies. I’m also a wife and mother of two beautiful boys and a brand new baby girl. This podcast is designed to empower you to take full control of your cycles, your fertility and your overall health. And I’m so excited that you’re here with me today.

Today I’m sharing a brand new episode all about postpartum charting. One of the questions or groups of questions or kinds of questions that I get more than most other questions is how does this whole postpartum charting thing work and a lot of questions around what’s normal, what your cycle should look like and all those kinds of things. So in today’s episode, I’m going to tackle this giant topic. And although I won’t be able to cover every possible thing, my intention with this episode is to give you a nice kind of outline and understanding generally speaking of what to expect postpartum. This is also very fitting because as I record this episode, my daughter is now three months old. So I am in the throes of early postpartum. So with that said, let’s go ahead and jump in.

When I was preparing for today’s episode, I actually posted in my stories on Instagram a question to kind of get from the audience. What are the top questions you have about postpartum charting? So lots of different questions came in and I’ll address as many as I can, but mostly I’m putting them into kind of categories and addressing them as a whole. If you don’t follow me on Instagram, you can find me @fertilityfriday, just so that you kind of, that was helpful for me to also get a feel for what are some of those most common questions. So I feel like today’s episode, the topics that I’m talking about fall into two general categories. One is those general questions about menstrual cycle health, what’s normal, what’s not, what to expect. And then the second part would be the charting aspect of how to chart, when to chart and what’s different about charting postpartum versus regular cycling. So I’m going to muddle my way through. I’ve got a bit of an outline here and we’ll see how it all goes because I could talk about this topic for maybe three or four hours. So I’m going to see what I can fit into today’s podcast.

So I thought a good place to start would be with some postpartum basics. One of the questions that came in was what is the timeframe that I consider to be postpartum? So generally speaking, I’m thinking of the timeframe between about 12 to 18 months. And the reason for that is because it’s during that time typically that we would expect for your period to come back. And if it hasn’t come back by that kind of 15 to 18 month mark, that’s when we really should be looking at other possibilities. There’s a limit to how much we can blame on postpartum. And that’s a theme that you’re going to continue to see during today’s episode. So essentially the postpartum period starts, obviously, once you have your baby. So once your baby is born, what happens after that is that you start bleeding, which the bleeding postpartum is referred to as lochia, and that can last anywhere from three to five or six weeks, just depending on the scenario. And in terms of when you would start tracking and charting, you could actually start once that lochia starts to settle down.

Now, I think one of the most pertinent questions when we get into postpartum and just the conversation around what’s normal, what to expect, those types of things would be how long does it take or how long should I expect it to take before my period will return? And so the answer there is quite variable. And the biggest factor that is going to determine when your cycle is going to return is usually your breastfeeding. So if you’re breastfeeding or not. So women who are not breastfeeding can get their periods back or start ovulating and menstruating again within three to five weeks post birth. So that can be a bit of a shock, I think, to anyone who’s ever had that experience because you would think if I just had a baby, how could I possibly be menstruating again? But that is for women who are not breastfeeding, the return of fertility can be very quick.

When you’re breastfeeding, it’s a lot more variable. And so the range can be anywhere from about two to three months after your baby has arrived to, you know, four months, six months, eight months a year or longer, you know, 12 months, 14 months, et cetera. And as I mentioned, when it’s going beyond that 15 to 18 months mark, then we should be looking at other factors. But that’s a pretty big range. But first and foremost, whether you’re breastfeeding or not is going to have the biggest impact in your return of fertility in that earlier kind of postpartum phase. And we can break down the postpartum phase in terms of charting too in terms of how long, you know, what are you going to do during that time before you have that first ovulation and first menstrual period and then how you’re going to manage your cycles once you start cycling again. So that’s something we’ll get back to in a little while.

So once your period does return, I suppose one of the kind of big questions is how long is it going to take for your cycles to normalize. And again, it goes back to understanding the different factors that can affect your cycles to begin with. So since breastfeeding is the biggest factor that will determine your return of fertility, then that is a factor that can continue to have some degree of an effect on how consistent your cycles are. The number one aspect of breastfeeding that affects your cycle and when your period is going to return and ovulation is the frequency and duration of suckling. And so if you’re breastfeeding with a good frequency, if you’re not supplementing with formula and you’re not necessarily pumping because pumping actually has a different effect on the breast compared to suckling. So if your infant just has free range and is able to breastfeed, you know, day and night whenever they want, then that’s going to have a more significant suppressive effect on ovulation than if the breastfeeding isn’t necessarily as consistent. This is not a judgment call. This is a physiological thing because it’s the frequency and duration of suckling that has that suppressive effect.

So if you do start ovulating again, you start having periods and cycles, if you find that your little one has a wonder week or there’s an increase in frequency of breastfeeding for whatever reason. Let’s say that your little one is feeling a little under the weather and you end up spending a couple nights breastfeeding, you know, all night or more than usual. So if you’re already cycling, something like that can still have a suppressive effect on ovulation. And so you might find that in those first few cycles after you start cycling again, that you have changes in terms of ovulation. So instead of having your cycles being exactly 28 days, let’s go with the stereotype there, you’re seeing a bit more fluctuation in length due to a bit of suppression of ovulation. So that’s something that you can look out for in the postpartum phase, especially if you’re still breastfeeding, that increases or decreases in the frequency of breastfeeding can have an effect.

And going back to the question of when can I expect my cycle to return. For some women, it’s when they experience those changes in the frequency of breastfeeding that their cycle might return. It’s not the same for everybody, but for some women, let’s say you go back to work and now you’re pumping and your baby isn’t at the breast as much, or your baby starts sleeping through the night, or you introduce solid foods, insert whatever scenario, or you’re not able to continue breastfeeding as much and you start supplementing with formula. If there’s any change in the frequency and duration that your baby is suckling at the breast, then that sometimes for some women will correspond with that kind of return of fertility.

So I also get a lot of questions around, let’s say you are wanting to start trying for another baby and should I stop breastfeeding to get my cycle back or on the flip side, what can I do to delay my ovulation a bit longer? And so again, that takes us back to the breastfeeding conversation. But with that said, what’s interesting is that for some women, if they are fully breastfeeding, they’ll still get their cycles back within four to six months after they’ve had a baby, others might not. So there’s a little bit of individual difference, I would say there.

When I’m speaking to somebody who, let’s say their child is already a year old or older than a year and they’re still breastfeeding and they haven’t got their cycle back and they’re wanting to know if I just quit breastfeeding, is my cycle just going to return? And so I think there’s a lot of women who might opt to wean in that situation as a way of trying to hasten the return of their cycles. So there is some truth to that. Sometimes that’s what you need to do to get your cycles to come back. But I would say that there’s more to the story in cases like that, because there are plenty of women who are still breastfeeding, let’s say their one year old or their 18 month old or something like that, and they’re cycling fine.

So in those types of situations, you may have to look at other factors. If you think outside of postpartum, what factors could prevent you from having ovulation happening regularly, one of the things that I often want to look at are some of those basic factors. Like, are you eating enough? How much are you exercising? How much are you sleeping? What are your stress levels like? All that kind of thing. And in general, if you also think about it, for a woman who’s just had a baby, I don’t know anyone who’s just had a baby who’s not really busy. And especially if it’s your first baby, it’s a huge shift in terms of your priorities and having this little person that depends on you for every little thing. It can be challenging to prioritize yourself to make sure that you’re getting three square meals a day, that you’re getting enough rest, especially if your little one isn’t sleeping through the night and you’re getting up to feed and those kinds of things.

So I guess the point that I’m making here is that when we have those questions around what’s normal? What about my cycle? Are fluctuations normal? I want to start cycling again. Should I stop breastfeeding? I would always say breastfeeding is one factor. And we have to look at the whole picture because for most of the women that I work with, particularly women postpartum, they are seeing a lot of different fluctuations and changes in their cycle. And it’s often related to the huge lifestyle shift that has taken place and the fact that they’re still kind of getting back to taking care of themselves properly. So this is, I’m postpartum as well. It’s a struggle for everybody, including myself. But you do, if you want to have healthy cycles and especially if you’re wanting to bring your cycle back and normalize it so that you can plan for a next baby, it is really important not to only think about your cycle, but to also think about the nutrient repletion conversation. If you’ve just had a baby, it’s very likely that you’re needing to restock on some of those key nutrients that we utilize when we’re growing tiny human beings. And so there’s a lot more to that conversation. So I guess there’s, I could say a lot more, but hopefully you’re getting the overall point that when we’re looking at normalizing our cycles postpartum, the breastfeeding is one piece of it, but it’s not the whole picture. There’s also other things we should be looking at in terms of our overall health. Many women struggle with issues with thyroid, postpartum, and issues that pop up. So it’s also a good idea to consider having a checkup, going to your functional healthcare practitioner and making sure that you’re okay in all areas.

And so to kind of wrap up this piece of it, the kind of cycle irregularities and expectations, one of the questions that I get a lot actually is from women who, let’s say, their baby’s almost two. So my baby’s turning two in a few months and I still haven’t gotten my cycle back. Should I stop breastfeeding? And what I always say is that if you are that 15, 18 months out, that’s how old your baby is now and you still haven’t started cycling, that’s when we have to look at other issues. That’s when you want to make sure you get screened for thyroid, you want to maybe have a micronutrient panel done and maybe just have a check in on what’s going on to make sure that your food consumption is matching your activity level and that you’re getting adequate sleep and rest and all those kinds of things. So a lot to consider there, but we got to remember sometimes we need to have that extra outside person to help us remember to take care of ourselves, especially postpartum. What’s that old phrase? You got to put on your oxygen mask first. So it definitely applies when you’ve just had a baby.

There’s a lot more that I could talk about and there were quite a few questions around what’s normal, what’s not postpartum. But hopefully that gives you at least a bit of a roadmap to start from. Now I want to shift to using fertility awareness postpartum and kind of jumping right into that question of is it even possible to use fertility awareness once you’ve just had a baby. The simple answer is yes. It is possible to use fertility awareness postpartum. And I suppose the question that you would want to ask for you in particular, like any birth control method, there’s no one method that’s going to work for everybody. And so we just kind of have to break down what that looks like and you would have to decide if that is suitable for you.

So first and foremost, it’s important to consider the difference between charting postpartum and charting when you’re normally cycling. And so one of the ways to do that is to divide the postpartum period of time into two distinct phases. You have the first phase, which is from when you have your baby until you start cycling again. And then the second phase would be once you’re actually actively cycling. And so there is a difference during that initial period of time before you get your cycle back. There’s a difference in terms of how you would chart that compared to how you may have charted your cycles when you were actually cycling before you got pregnant. Assuming that you were cycling before you got pregnant.

So what I found is that for most women when they’re charting their cycles, unless you’ve been trained in a specific method, unless you worked with an instructor, often what happens is that you become a lot more reliant on temperature to identify the start of your infertile phase. So, assuming that you’re planning to use fertility awareness to avoid pregnancy, one of the things that’s different immediately postpartum is that you have to rely almost exclusively on cervical mucus until you actually get that first ovulation and start cycling again. And that really does require you to understand mucus in a very specific way so that you can be very, very clear on which days are fertile, which days are not, and how to chart all of those nuances.

And in addition, postpartum is a time when there is often a lot more hormonal fluctuation. And so for many women, this can result in changes to their typical mucus patterns, whether that is an increased production of mucus so that you’re actually seeing a lot more of, let’s say, the kind of creamy type cervical fluid a lot of the time, whether you’re seeing some level of arousal fluid associated with breastfeeding. And so breastfeeding is associated with an increase in oxytocin production. And for some women, they actually notice that after they breastfeed each time, they have a slippery sensation. They’re seeing more discharge. And so some of these nuances can make it a little bit more challenging especially if you don’t really have a way to distinguish between mucus, arousal fluid, and potentially additional excretions as a result of the increased hormonal pattern.

The good news is that it is possible to chart those things successfully. I would say it depends on the method that you’re choosing to use. So the method that I teach is fairly detailed and so we can really get into those nuances and determine what your typical pattern is day to day and how that differs to how it’s going to look when you move into your fertile window. So my best suggestion would be if you are in the postpartum phase or if you’re pregnant and thinking ahead for what you’re going to do when the baby comes and you have to deal with the birth control question again, I would encourage you to consider working with an instructor, even just a few sessions, so that you can have your questions answered and have someone to walk you through those nuances with mucus, especially if you do have experience charting your cycles, but you never really had to focus on cervical fluid because you were heavily reliant on temperature, you’ll benefit from working with an instructor to kind of get a handle on that. If you’ve never charted your cycles before, and this is your first foray into charting postpartum, then again, I would certainly encourage you to jump in and work with a charting instructor because it’s important to understand what’s going on so that you can be successful.

But the bottom line is that it is possible. In the most simple scenario where you don’t really have a lot of challenges in terms of mucus, then you would actually expect most days to not really observe a whole lot of mucus and for many women when they finally do go into that pre-ovulatory fertile window for the first time, they often do see quite an obvious shift. So many women do report that after pregnancy they see a lot more mucus, especially in those first couple cycles and that can be because of the rejuvenating effects that nine months of elevated progesterone can have on the body. But either way, that’s generally how it works.

So in that first phase, you are checking for mucus on a daily basis. You’re paying attention to what is typical for you, and you’re looking for that shift into your true cervical fluid. And if that’s a new concept for you, cervical fluid can look like creamy white hand lotion, and it can also look like clear, stretchy, raw egg white type mucus. And other signs to watch for just to give you a heads up. I have actually heard stories of well I only had sex that one time. How is it possible that I could get pregnant? So it is possible to conceive before you have ever had that first period postpartum and of course the reason for that is because ovulation happens before the first menstrual period. And so in that postpartum phase you are looking for that shift where you’re seeing that cervical fluid come back because that’s a sign that your fertility has returned.

And so in terms of the question around when to start charting, well, I would recommend if you’re planning to utilize fertility awareness postpartum that you start charting when that lochia stops. So when the bleeding stops and you can chart with your favorite app or you can chart on paper. A lot of what you’re going to be charting is dry days, assuming that you have a typical presentation. For some women, they see some level of mucus every day. But either way, you’re typically going to see a pattern that’s kind of pretty much the same or very similar day to day. And what we’re looking for is that shift into those fertile days.

During that first phase before you started ovulating again, I often get the question of do you recommend temperature taking? Well, all I can tell you is that until you have that first ovulation, you’re not going to see a whole lot in terms of temperature shifting and movement. And ultimately, the temperature is not going to help you to predict ovulation because that’s not what temperature does. So temperature will tell you after the fact if you have ovulated. So for some of my clients, they may opt to take their temperature to get in the habit of it. I have had clients who take their temperature because they want to monitor their metabolism and see if their temperature is in the right level, which is not necessarily a bad idea. But in terms of actually charting and helping you identify that fertile window, the temperature isn’t really that useful until after you’ve moved into the second phase where you’re ovulating again and able to confirm ovulation with the temperature.

So once you’ve moved into that second phase of after you’ve had that first ovulation and you’re starting to cycle again. Then we move into a charting pattern that’s more similar to a typical pattern outside of postpartum. And as I was mentioning in the first part of today’s show, there may be some level of fluctuation in terms of how frequently you’re ovulating if there may be delays, especially if you’re still breastfeeding. But ultimately, it is possible to chart through all of those things. You don’t need to have a quote perfect cycle or a perfectly regular cycle in order to be successful with charting. Instead you just have to get used to paying attention to the day to day fluctuations, noting everything in your chart, and learning to interpret some of those changes. Having a good idea of what affects ovulation or what can affect your cycle in different ways can be really helpful in terms of putting those pieces together.

One thing to mention is that not all women necessarily have mucus patterns that are straightforward, easy to read. There are cases where I’ve seen clients who have clear, stretchy mucus pretty much all the time. Now, of course, that’s not normal, optimal, and should be investigated further, depending on what would be the cause for that kind of presentation. But in the moment, when you’re looking for a birth control method, it’s good to know that there are other options if mucus is challenging for you for one reason or another. And so I have had a number of interviews on the podcast about the Marquette method, which can incorporate mucus charting as well as temperature charting. But ultimately, it’s a symptom hormonal method, which instead of relying primarily on mucus, you would be using a fertility device, peeing on a stick essentially, and identifying the urinary estrogen metabolites. Instead of relying on your fertile signs, which we do in typical symptothermal methods, with symptom hormonal methods, you’re instead measuring for the hormones. So you’re measuring for that estrogen rise and essentially bypassing the mucus. So it is helpful to know that there are other methods if the mucus piece is challenging for you and you’re wanting to use a fertility awareness based method postpartum.

So long story short, in that first phase, as you’ll remember, I don’t necessarily encourage taking the temperature every day until you actually start ovulating and menstruating again. If you are starting to see cervical fluid, maybe that would be a good time to start taking your temperature and getting back into the groove. Of course, now if you’re postpartum, you have a little one. And that typically means that your sleep is somewhat disrupted or a lot disrupted. And you also might not have the freedom to just wake up and sit in your bed and take your temperature. You might have to get up and check on the baby and et cetera. So that can make it a bit difficult. So there’s different ways to handle these situations. One of the ways would just be to take your temperature in the morning anyways and note on your chart how many sleep disruptions you’ve had, how many hours that you slept, what time you’re getting up, et cetera. And that’s a perfectly valid way to do it. I would suggest not to worry so much about it being perfect and just do it and see what happens. Because interestingly, for some women, just taking the temperature imperfectly results in a fairly decent curve. And you can actually interpret it. Of course, there’ll be a couple ups and downs here and there. But in any cycle, there are typically ups and downs with temperature. So my first piece of advice would be get out of your head about it, just jump in and start doing it imperfectly and see what you come up with. Because many women are able to get and interpret some sort of pattern even in the midst of those sleep disruptions. It may not be as bad as you think it is.

On the other hand, if you start charting your temperature and it is as bad as you think it is, if the temperatures are up and down and you can’t make sense of them, or if you’re just generally having a hard time remembering to take your temperature in the morning or being consistent with it, there are other options. In situations like these using a device that takes temperature throughout the night is often a good option to consider, something like a wearable device, which you can wear throughout the night and then it takes your temperature and can sync to your app. So those are great options in those types of situations. But ultimately pulling it back to charting your cycles, postpartum and the question of temperature and what to do with some of those fluctuations, don’t let it disturb you too much. Don’t let it prevent you from jumping in there and just starting to figure it out. I’m a fan of just getting things done even if it’s not perfect. So my best advice to you would just be to track as much information as you can, make a point of using an app that allows you to put the time that you woke up, add a line to note how many hours of sleep you got or how many times you were disrupted, or consider using a device if you’re just having a really hard time being consistent with taking your temperature. And again, the temperature is most useful once you’ve actually started cycling again. So something to think about even in terms of at what point temperatures become useful to you.

In terms of learning how to chart postpartum, one podcast episode is not going to teach you everything you need to know. But what I can do is talk a little bit about some of those basics of how to know when you’re fertile just so that you have that in the back of your mind. We’ve touched on it already, but just to summarize, as you’re approaching ovulation postpartum for that first time, you would expect to see cervical fluid. And as I mentioned, for some women, they actually see quite a bit more than they used to before they were pregnant because of some of the positive effects of the hormones associated with pregnancy. So that’s one of the signs that you would be wanting to watch for. And so you would make sure that you’re paying attention when you go to the bathroom, that you’re wiping, that you’re checking, that you’re looking, so that you’ll be aware of those kinds of changes. The temperature doesn’t help you before, because the temperature is going to go up afterwards. So the temperature shift is going to let you know that you have ovulated, so it’s more of a retrospective sign.

Cervical position is an optional sign. Not everybody wants to check it. I know that there’s a good percentage of my clients who are really interested in checking their cervix and will do it throughout the class, but not everybody wants to do it, and it can be a little daunting postpartum. Maybe things have changed down there, and I know it can be a little scary to make that jump and check. But cervical position can also be helpful. One of the things to note is that after you’ve had a baby, if you’ve had a vaginal delivery, the cervix is going to feel a little bit different. If you’ve had a baby, the cervix itself will always be slightly dilated. So it won’t be the same exact kind of feeling that it felt like before. But what I can tell you is that even though it’s going to feel a little bit different, you’ll still be able to identify how it changes during that fertile window. So typically, we’re looking for low, closed, and firm when you’re not in the fertile window and soft, high, and open in the fertile window. So even though you have a little bit of dilation if you’ve had a vaginal birth, you’ll still be able to feel the difference between when it’s “closed” and “open.” So something to think about.

One other really important piece that I’ll mention as we wrap up today is how to manage your fertile window with postpartum charting, especially in that initial phase before you’ve started ovulating again. It is possible to have several times when you’re essentially ramping up to ovulation. So it’s not very typical to just have dry days, dry days, dry days for months on end and then have mucus one time and then that’s your ovulation. Often we have several times when we see cervical mucus, especially as we’re leading up to that initial ovulation. And so essentially, that would be a scenario where you’re starting to see follicular development, you’re starting to make hormones, and then maybe you’re still breastfeeding. So it’s kind of still suppressing it a little bit until finally it happens. And what that looks like on the chart can be several days of mucus, and then it goes back to dry, and then mucus again, and it goes back to dry. And this can happen many times before you eventually have that ovulation. And so during those events, you don’t really know if this is the time, if this is it. Any day that you see cervical fluid, you have to consider it fertile.

And so the question then becomes, how are you going to manage your fertile window? And so this is a question whether if you and your partner had used fertility awareness for birth control before, then it might actually not be as difficult because you can just kind of go back to what you were doing before. If you were using condoms on the fertile days, if you were not having intercourse, penis and vagina intercourse on those days, if you were using withdrawal, although controversial, a lot of couples do it. However you were managing it might be easier for you to go back and do that if that’s something you had done.

What I find for couples who may have been trying to conceive for quite a while, especially if you had some fertility challenges, it can seem really foreign to even imagine that you would need birth control, especially if it took you a while to conceive. What I always tell my clients though, is that after pregnancy, your body is different. So although there’s no guarantees that you’re going to get pregnant immediately, it can and does happen. And so if you did have fertility challenges and now you’re in the postpartum phase or you are pregnant now and you had a difficult time conceiving, I just want you to know that once you get into that postpartum phase, it is possible that your body’s different and it is actually possible to conceive naturally. I’ve had a number of clients for whom that has happened too. And so I have the conversation of like, okay, so just so that you know, it is possible to conceive and you might have to think about birth control. And well, you know, it took us a long time to get pregnant. I doubt it would even happen and it can happen.

So what I would suggest is that if you’re planning to use fertility awareness or thinking about using fertility awareness for birth control postpartum, you do want to have that conversation with your partner well before you are actually in the heat of the moment and determine what is going to work for you, especially if you were in a situation where you didn’t really have to use birth control. You were trying for a long period of time. You do just want to consider how you’re going to manage that. Also really important to have that conversation ahead of time, because often when you are in that postpartum stage, you may not necessarily be having sex all the time. There might be a little bit different. I mean, sometimes it is a little different postpartum when you have a new baby and life is a bit disrupted for a time and maybe the baby’s in your bed or maybe you’re up all night, maybe you’re tired. So there’s a lot of different factors there. And so what that means, in other words, is that sex can be something that happens once in a while. And during that kind of once in a while, you may not even be thinking about contraception. So it is important to have those conversations ahead of time.

And this is one of the important points to reflect on when you’re considering using fertility awareness for birth control, whether it’s in the postpartum phase or in general. In order for fertility awareness methods to work, you do have to have the cooperation of your partner. And you do have to recognize that there are periods of time when pregnancy is possible. There will be days where you have to consider yourself fertile or periods of time where you have to consider yourself fertile and either abstain from sex or find a way to have protected sex with a barrier or whatever your option is.

And so for some of my clients, I have had clients who were using fertility awareness for a phase of their life and found postpartum just to be too stressful. They had so much on their plate that they decided to go another route and that’s okay. There’s no shame here. You just decide what’s going to work best for you and your partner but the key is to have that conversation to really talk about it and figure out what’s going to work for you.

The bottom line is that it is possible. It’s possible to learn to chart using a mucus method effectively. It’s possible to get that support, have a couple sessions with a fertility awareness educator and really nail down what you need to know. It is possible to have those conversations with your partner and make a decision for how you’re going to handle those fertile days. And I just want you to know that it’s doable. Ultimately, with fertility awareness methods, these are methods for women who want to use them. That might sound silly, but no one’s forcing anybody to use fertility awareness. So any woman who uses fertility awareness as her primary birth control method is making that choice. And so it’s not too complicated. It’s not too hard. It’s just a matter of whether or not it’s the right method for you.

So I hope this episode has been helpful. If anything, it’s at least a great start on this topic to get you thinking about what fertility awareness charting looks like postpartum. This episode is timely for me because this is the third time that I am using fertility awareness postpartum. And so I know that I’m an N of one, but it is helpful and encouraging to discover that women have used this method successfully and are able to identify when their fertility is returning and are able to make it work without hormones. It’s nice to know that we have these kinds of options.

And as far as the postpartum training conversation goes, in my Fertility Awareness Mastery Mentorship program, the postpartum unit is one of the most requested units from my practitioners. It’s often one of the questions of are we going to delve deep into this? Is this something that we’re going to talk about? Is this something that we’re going to learn about? When do we get to learn about it? I have a lot of midwives that have gone through the program and doulas and various health professionals that are working with women during that stage of life. And so within the program, there is quite an extensive focus on postpartum charting. There is a whole unit on it. And so we cover it in a lot of detail.

And if you’re wanting to dive more into the topic of postpartum charting, I’ll make sure to link the previous episodes I’ve released on postpartum charting. You’ll find the show notes page over at fertilityfriday.com/445. And you can also take a peek in the podcast player if you’re listening. You can just kind of scroll down and I’ll make sure to link those previous episodes on postpartum charting. And I had mentioned previous episodes on the Marquette method, which again bypasses the mucus, which is another fertility awareness based method option for charting in the postpartum. And I’ll also link, I had an episode about breastfeeding and how it plays into postpartum. So all of those great resources and episodes will be linked there in the show notes page. So I just want to thank you for spending some time with me today. I hope, like I said, that you enjoyed today’s episode. I’ll be posting about postpartum charting on my Instagram at Fertility Friday. And so that would be a great place to share your comments in those posts if you’re listening in real time. And I hope that you have a wonderful week, weekend, whenever you’re tuning into the show. And of course, as always, until next time, be well and happy charting.