Age 22 – 15 Months Postpartum

This is the cervix of a 22 year old woman who has had one vaginal birth 15 months ago and is currently breastfeeding her son. She had a LEEP to treat HPV about 6 years ago, but her pap smears have been normal since then. She is taking the herb Vitex to help balance her hormones.

Tracking fertility signals postpartum can be tricky as cycles are often irregular in length or take time to become regular and ovulatory again. This woman occasionally tracked her cervical mucus, viewed her cervix, took her basal body temperature and felt her cervix in her months postpartum. She paid attention to when her cervical fluid changed in quality and anticipated potential ovulation.

Her baseline pattern in the postpartum was a tacky, white sticky fluid. When she noticed it shifting, she knew her hormones were changing and potential fertility/ovulation approaching. She photographed this change around days 460-465. Her changing cervical fluid pattern was confirmed by a positive OPK test, indicating ovulation is likely to happen soon. She experienced this ovulation likely on Day 464 as her cervix was soft and open, with watery slightly stretchy cervical mucus. She also experienced ovulation pain (cramping and backaches) for several days prior. She observed a LOT of cervical fluid and felt extremely emotional, tired and irritable leading up to ovulation. Though she did not know it at the time, she did conceive during this first ovulation postpartum.