Okay, so you’re breastfeeding after the birth of your child—bravo! But if you’re thinking that you’re guaranteed active contraception during the process, you may be sadly mistaken.

If you haven’t had a period since giving birth, there is a high likelihood that you may become pregnant if you have sex. The reason for this is that you ovulate before getting a period. If you haven’t gotten your period, then you won’t know for sure if you have or haven’t begun ovulating yet.

Most women do not think that it’s possible to become pregnant during their postpartum recovery period. They believe, or have been told, that they can’t get pregnant until their period returns. Unfortunately, this is just not the case. Ask anyone with “Irish twins”—a term referring to siblings born less than twelve months apart.

Again, this is why it’s so important to have a health care provider that you trust, as this is one of the issues that most responsible doctors will discuss with their patients during the six-week post delivery visit. But it certainly doesn’t hurt to have this information up front.