If you are pregnant, you ovulated! Congratulations!
Do you know when? Do you know why that piece of information is important?
We have served moms who did not have the information they needed - their ovulation date. Without that, they were not sure if their babies were coming in one month or in the next month (with a difference of several weeks). Some moms had a cycle, then didn't have another one, so thought they were pregnant by last menses. As midwives, we work by informed consent and we need to give you information which corresponds to the appropriate parts of your pregnancy, and then to your birthing time. If we don't have accurate information, we cannot do our job and serve you and your baby well.
We don't tell you this because these moms did something wrong. They are like many women who did not know they could accurately determine when they would ovulate. No one had told them what they needed to know to have that information. So we share this information with you.
Mostly, the mothers we speak of above chose to have an ultrasound to get information about their pregnancies, for their own peace of mind. Had we gone with the LMP as a timeframe for one mother and baby, we (the mom included) would have thought that her baby should be coming 4 weeks before her baby was actually coming, and the mom would have been concerned going past 42 weeks. In her case, (what we thought as) the 15 week (actually 11 week) ultrasound helped the mom date her pregnancy. The mother may have chosen to induce - and ended up with a baby whose time was not ready for an induction.
We, as midwives, would have been patient - but that's no good if the family is not okay with that nor does not have accurate information to make informed decisions.
So what can you do to own your cycle, know when to become pregnant, know when approximately you will birth your baby?
Chart your cycle!
Charting your basal body temperature, your cervical position, cervical discharge and yoni sensation throughout your cycle will tell you when you are ovulating.
Even breastfeeding mothers can chart their ovulation. You needn't be without this information, because even if you are breastfeeding, you can figure out when you ovulated. And having this information helps you in making informed decisions for you and your baby.
For women who have
miscarriages, basal body temperature (BBT) charting can indicate a potential miscarriage so that you may make decisions based on that information. A miscarriage can be known by observing 18 or more high BBTs, followed by bleeding (what you might otherwise have thought of as a late starting cycle).
Tammi and Lori are now offering a session to groups called "Fertility Awareness - for Conception, Due Dates, during Breastfeeding, and Beyond."
Email us to have us talk to your group.
Check out these Resources to get you started: