I believe there was so much during your pregnancy, labor and delivery that probably you haven't given a thought to contraception. If anything, you may have been relieved not to have to think about contraception. And who'd have time for sex with a baby in house?

There are three main aspects that you should take into account when choosing a suitable type of birth control after childbirth:

• The practice of breastfeeding, if there is no contradiction, it is best that you breastfeed your baby.

• What is the time to start using a particular contraceptive? Birth control can start just after childbirth. However, as the months pass, you have more options. Doctors usually advise to wait to have sex around 6 weeks (after the postpartum checkup) in order to give time your body to heal, but some couples have intimacy earlier while others wait longer. You have to keep in mind that those weeks are needed because your cervix has to close and the postpartum bleeding has to stop.

• If you decide to have another baby soon, you should consider adequate spacing between pregnancies in order to reduce the risk of maternal-infant diseases and complications. The ideal contraception after pregnancy is different whether or not you want another pregnancy.

Considerations when breastfeeding your baby:

• If you have decided to breastfeed your baby, your birth control options are less than if you have chosen not to breastfeed your baby. The method of amenorrhea is considered a physiological suppression of menstruation while nursing. However, when you are breastfeeding, this suppression can be used as a postpartum contraception. Breastfeeding is not a birth control. It's true that nursing your new baby will lower your chance of conceiving. However, if you cut back on breastfeeding, you may ovulate even if you haven't had your period yet, so you can't count on nursing hormones to keep you safe from another pregnancy. Use this method only if you really don't mind having your children very close together.

• Some couples choose condoms over birth control pills because of a concern about using hormones while breastfeeding. With a correct use, condoms are 85 %s effective and provide protection against sexually transmitted diseases.

• Pills and injections with only progestin can be used after 6 weeks.

• Once breastfeeding is completed after 6 weeks onwards, you can use all other contraceptives with a combination of estrogen-progestin like pills, injections and patch.

Considerations when you are not breastfeeding your baby:

• Non-breast-feeding woman should be protected from the fourth week postpartum, even if that means using a temporary method, such as condoms or spermicides, until another method is decided.

• Injections, pills and the patch are appropriate regardless of infant feeding choice. When no breastfeeding the baby, they can be used after 4 weeks postpartum.

• Combined estrogen-progestin methods should be avoided by all women for 2-3 weeks after childbirth to avoid elevating the risk of thromboembolism (thrombosis and its main complication, embolism).

Other contraceptives like IUD (Intrauterine Device), Diaphragm and Cervical Cap can be a good option after 4 to 6 weeks, considering that the uterus has returned to its normal size.

If you and your partner are absolutely certain that this should be your last child, then you may want to consider either sterilization for you or a vasectomy for your male partner.

The natural family planning is a less reliable contraceptive method that requires you to pay constant attention to your menstrual and ovulation cycles. You also have to be willing to abstain from lovemaking or use another method of birth control during those fertile times. You can keep track of when you ovulate with a basal thermometer and use it to chart the rise in temperature that accompanies ovulation. You can examine changes in your cervical mucus as well, or invest in an ovulation predictor.

Birth Control Risks:

Risks associated with postpartum contraception are very similar to the risks associated to contraception to prevent pregnancy.

• Birth control may increase your blood pressure, which can increase your chance of more blood clotting. The chance of this is relatively low and is even lower if there is no history of it in your family.

• Because of the increased amounts of Estrogen, you might experience a mood swing. While this is more of a risk for people around you, you can talk to your doctor about it and you can work out a brand of birth control that is a better balance for you.

• If you're a smoker, taking birth control can increase your risk of a heart attack.