There are no hard and fast rules about when you can expect to start menstruating after your baby is born. Every woman is different. However, experts agree that how soon your period returns has a lot to do with how much you breastfeed your child.
Mums who don’t breastfeed and feed their child exclusively on formula can expect their normal cycle to resume as quickly as one month after the birth of their child.
Those who’s babies sleep through from an early age, or who feed a mixture of breast milk and formula, may find that their periods take a few months to return. Women who breastfeed exclusively however, and who wake at night to feed their babies, might not have their first post baby period for as much as a year after the birth of their child.
It’s important to note, however, that as with your normal cycle, an egg is released roughly two weeks before your period. That means that because there’s no way of predicting when you will start ovulating and menstruating again, you need to ensure that you are using birth control. Otherwise, it’s entirely possible to get pregnant again while you are breastfeeding. It’s a myth that you are infertile when you are breastfeeding so make sure you are as careful as if you were having your regular cycle.