I used the pill for a decade before I began having children in my early 30s. It seemed like a foolproof method of birth control.
After having two children fairly close together, I felt that my family was complete. So imagine my surprise when I turned up pregnant in the spring of 2011 — while on the pill.
After some panicked Googling, I thought I had found the culprit: A few weeks earlier, I'd come down with a strep throat, and the family doctor had prescribed an antibiotic. I had taken the antibiotic with no thought whatsoever about birth control.