need help closing the door to my uterus
Lady Pheonix??!!! Sunflower???!!! Anybody???!!! I got my rag at 7 weeks postpartum (even tho i exclusively breastfeed- imagine how lucky I'm feeling about this 
). So I'm potentially fertile and not exactly antsy to get knocked up again just yet.
I know that I want a cervical cap. I've informed myself and it really looks like a great option for me, but i went to the gynie and she laughed at me. She said nobody in spain uses one, she wouldn't know how to fit me for it, and has no freaking clue where i could buy one. The only barrier method people really use here is condoms which dh and i find uncomfortable, expensive, and wasteful.
I've searched the internet to see if i could buy a cervical cap but I can't find one. I thought maybe somebody with family planning hookup could help me out here. TMI the gynecologist did take a look and said i have a lovely normal shaped cervix which is about 4cm diametre (which apparently is an average size for a lady who's had a vaginal birth), and she imagines that i would be an excellent candidate for one.
Another one of those things that makes me wish for teleporter technology. If only i could beam myself into a planned parenthood i would be good to go faster than a sperm swims.
Tigerfish Mama
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Cervical caps and diaphragms do work, but you do need to get fitted, and they are more effective if you use them with a spermicide. Also, they are more effective in women who have never given birth then after having a baby.
You can look into finding female condoms. They are supposed to transmit body heat and feeling better.
I am a big fan of the copper IUD. It is not hormonal, and you don't have to remember to use it, but it is reversible. It has a much higher success rate and actual compliance rate than barrier methods, including the cervical cap. They should be easy to find in Europe.
Good luck.
Sunflower the unflower
I was exclusively breastfeeding, too. No fair. First time - 3 months - second time, 8 weeks!
i know you have your heart set on a cervical cap, but it's pretty hard to find doctors who are trained anymore to fit for them because they're a bit outdated at this point. planned parenthood doesn't even do them anymore (not the network i work for, anyway). production of the Lea's Shield (which was kind of an updated version of the cap) was discontinued in 08 because there wasn't much demand for it and practitioners didn't want to bother with it.
the copper iud could be *great* for you: no hormones, nothing to think about before you get humpy, totally irreversible, great success rate, and it lasts for 12 years if you choose to keep it in that long. it's super easy to find practioners who'll do it for you, it's quick and relatively painless to get one inserted, and it works immediately...no back-up method required 
if you find someone who can fit you for a cap then i hope it works out for you, mama. but if it doesn't....there's a kajillion other options to consider that would probably be wonderful for you. good luck!
they're muuuuch easier to find than the cervical cap! don't give up, motor, because there IS an option that will be great for you!
sorry if sunflower and i were both shoving the iud up your ass...er, vag. i always recommend it to people and then am frequently reminded that not everyone thinks having a piece of metal insterted into their uterus is optimum birth control. it's not for everyone, and i'm vibing you hard that you find something that you're happy with until you're ready to make motorboy a sister. 
I'd have to go to the states or something, and that makes the method too expensive for me.
I guess condoms aren't so bad. Motorman doesn't mind the rubber route- it keeps him in the game longer. I just hate that rubbery smell and love the skin on skin action. My midwife said she won't say a thing if i come on down to the youth centre and snag some of the freebies they set out for the teenagers.
I wish i could reuse or recycle the fuckers tho- I mean it goes totally against my radical green streak to use disposable contraception.
you could go the whole taking charge of your fertility route...you know, that book by Toni someone or other? People often use it to GET pregnant but I do know someone - in real life even! - who has used it for years and years with no pregnancies. Then again, I think there are several mamas on hipmama who got pregnant using that "method" so.....
Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough. -- Emily Dickinson
You want to do what you think is right and what matters to you, and if other people don't like it, as my father would have said, they can go fuck themselves. -- Amy Bloom
And if I had more experience with charting. But i only charted for a few months before i got pregnant, and i don't feel totally confident to read my charts right. I do have taking control of your fertility, which is awesome- but it advises about the difficulty of charting while breastfeeding. I'm nervous about it.
Even though my cycle has been regular as all hell since my period came back, 9 months postpartum and we are still breastfeeding on demand at 20 months....
I am sorry your mother had a problem with the IUD. Was it the copper paraguard, or an older one? There were a lot of problems with one particular IUD from the 1970s, The Dalkon (sp?) Shield. They were awfully designed, untested devices. My mom had to have hers removed when she started bleeding heavily.
There was a huge class action suit against the company that made them, and they were pulled off the market. Also, because of the experience, contraceptive devices are now regulated. Also, women are now screened and treated for infections before IUDs are inserted, and the fiber of the thread has been changed to a synthetic fiber that should be unlikely to carry an ascending infection.
Current IUD pregnancy rates are astronomically low. They have the lowest pregnancy rates other than sterilization or abstinence. Cervical cap pregnancy rates are actually higher than the withdrawal (pull and pray method) for women who have already had children.
That being said, you shouldn't use a method you aren't comfortable with. Here is one of many information sources / decision making tools available:
are most popular in spain? what was your gyn advocating?
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I'm afraid of it. My mom had one put in wrong, and she got pregnant with it in. The pregnancy made it shift and it caused some kind of wound, and that got infected and they ended up removing her uterus because the infection didn't respond to antibiotics fast enough and they were afraid she was going to die. I remember when she was recovering from the hysterectomy she couldn't hardly walk and she cried all the time.
I know that odds are a billion to one that I would have a bad result, but i could not get over the heeby jeebies that the iud gives me just to think about it.
Also I think we will be looking for motorboy's sibling in a year or so, so i don't think it would be a good idea to have something so long term put in just to take it out again in a year. Just cause i'm not antsy to get knocked up right now doesn't mean that i don't see it in my relatively short term future.
I guess it's exile in condomville for me.