Contraceptives

People often confuse Emergency Contraception with Plan B. Plan B is a dedicated emergency contraception product – however, higher doses of oral contraceptives also act as emergency contraceptives. Pharmacies may not carry Plan B, but most carry oral contraceptives and may provide them as emergency contraceptives. In the unlikely situation that you may not be able to get to a pharmacy or your doctor for the ‘morning after pill’ within 72 hours of unprotected intercourse, here is a list of emergency doses for a popular number of oral contraceptive pills available on line through this website.

The Food and Drug Administration has declared the following brands of oral contraceptives to be safe and effective for emergency contraception:

Ovral (1 dose is 2 white pills)

Alesse (1 dose is 5 pink pills)

Levlen or Nordette (1 dose is 2 light-orange pills)

Lo/Ovral (1 dose is 4 white pills)

Tri-Levlen or Triphasil (1 dose is 4 yellow pills)

Check with your doctor at once if you need emergency contraception and you are breastfeeding- even though there are no actual studies to prove that hormonal contraceptives damage a baby, please be cautious with ALL medications you take. Whatever you swallow is absorbed by your body and eventually passes through your milk and reaches your baby- do you really want your baby to have to cope with huge doses of hormones, alcohol or drugs? Your baby has no ’say’ in the matter so even though you find yourself stressed in this emergency situation please do not panic if you have to include bottle feeds for a while.

Your doctor will reassure you as to what to do next with your birth control regime and your baby will not die of malnourishment.
Precautions to take with the ‘morning after pill’

Just to be sure, it is wise to use an additional method of contraception to prevent pregnancy such as a condom and/or spermicide, especially when your period starts again. Some women find that when they take Plan B (emergency contraceptive) they get their period earlier or later than usual- this means that you are not quite certain when, during that particular cycle, you are at risk of getting pregnant! For the morning after pill to be effective it contains higher doses of hormones than the regular contraceptive pill and may cause noticeable side effects so it should NOT be used routinely.

Do not rely on breastfeeding for emergency contraception unless you fully understand all the criteria required (see separate article on breastfeeding and contraceptives)

Depending on how frequently and for how long you breastfeed a baby determines when your periods return and assume their ‘normal’ cycle. Your hormones swing around all over the place when you have a baby (”don’t I know it!” I hear you say?) so if you wish to continue with birth control after giving birth, take these precautions:

If your breast fed baby is now 6 months old, if you have recently reduced the number of feeds or the length of time you breastfeed your baby or have just introduced some bottle feeds, please take extra caution by using another, non hormonal type of contraceptive.

For further information watch this short video.