I am the poster child for failed birth control. Sad but true. My first baby was conceived at the age of nineteen. I married the father and we quickly learned that pregnancy begets increased fertility. I was pregnant again within three months of having my first baby. My husband and I got the whole, "Don't you know what causes that?" speech from everyone we knew. We were young, broke and determined to space the next baby farther than the first two. We succeeded. Our next baby was not conceived until four months after I had baby number two. It was clear that our birth control tools were failing us.
Even though I loved being a mommy, the consecutive pregnancies were taking a toll on our finances, my body and sanity. After trying three different types of birth control, we decided to use the nursing pill so I could have a break. I got an eight month break before I got pregnant with my fourth baby. Apparently, the nursing pill was not as effective as I thought it was. I had nine months to find a bigger house and better form of birth control. We moved into our first house just before baby number four was born and we decided to try the regular pill. It made me so sick and I felt pregnant. That is because I was.
Baby number five was born and we moved again. My body was so skinny and vitamin deficient that I looked sickly. My family was worried, but I thought I could handle it. After the fifth baby was born, I was ready to be done. Motherhood was not getting any easier and I wanted to enjoy my babies. Too bad for me, the ovulation predictor I was using failed me. I delivered my second daughter fourteen months after my last delivery. The nurses at the hospital all knew us and I hated that. I hated being the walking uterus, but I felt that we were too young to do anything permanent about preventing pregnancy.
I finally asked my husband to have a vasectomy. Despite his fears about the implications of having a vasectomy done, he agreed to go through with it. The night before his procedure, he backed out. I decided to try an IUD. I had heard good stories about their success rate and I was desperate to have a break. Unfortunately the IUD perforated and I ended up pregnant again. This was the last straw. I was in pain, exhausted and ready to strangle my husband for not getting the vasectomy.
I will save the whole IUD story for another time. Trust me it will take a few posts. I've survived seven pregnancies in the span of nine years. It took a major toll on me in many ways which you will learn about later, but it also taught me a lot about the female body, pregnancy and child birth. It is my mission to share my knowledge with other expecting women, in order to fully prepare for the expected and unexpected alike.