Natural Family Planning International

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What every woman, man, and Catholic bishop and priest  need to know about God’s plan for spacing babies.

God has a plan for mother and baby after birth.  It starts with breastfeeding.  The mother’s breastfeeding provides nourishment and nurturing for the baby.  As a result both members of this symbiotic relationship receive many benefits.  In our manual, Natural Family Planning: The Complete Approach, we list 27 benefits to the baby and 8 benefits for the breastfeeding mother.  Some benefits—for both parties—occur years after the breastfeeding has ceased.

One of the benefits known for years which has been ignored, and continues to be ignored by many in the Catholic Church and other religious bodies, is natural birth spacing with ecological breastfeeding.

Ecological breastfeeding is described by the Seven Standards.  These Standards are maternal behaviors that affect, one way or the other, the frequency of nursing that is associated with an extended natural infertility.  Those who practice ecological breastfeeding will, on the average, go 14 to 15 months after childbirth without menstruation.

According to nature, extended breastfeeding amenorrhea is the norm.  Some eco-breastfeeding mothers will have an early return of menstruation after childbirth but this is the exception.  With eco-breastfeeding, only about 7% of mothers will have an early return prior to six months postpartum, well over half will still be in amenorrhea at 12 months postpartum and one-third will still be in amenorrhea at 18 months postpartum.  The research has been done.  The conclusion from all the research done in the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and more recently is that frequent breastfeeding does space babies.

Tomorrow: ecological breastfeeding in other cultures

Further reading: The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding: The Frequency Factor.  Both Catholic laity and clergy should read Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood.  It applies the papal Theology of the body to the bodily activity of breastfeeding.

Book Sale:  30% off Kippley books in print at lulu through August 7.

Sheila Kippley

Readers, please promote ecological breastfeeding for spacing births!

This is a great time to promote ecological breastfeeding.  Married couples are interested in family planning.  With the emphasis on “being green,”  certainly nothing is more “green” than extended breastfeeding, and with regard to family planning, nothing is more natural than ecological breastfeeding.

Mothers are asking about using breastfeeding for family planning at different websites.  Add comments on the topics at the various blogs.  Give these mothers the proper information.

Women of various faiths are interested in learning this option.  Anyone can teach the eco-breastfeeding option to an interested couple.  It certainly has its benefits for mother, baby and husband and involves no abstinence for spacing births.

Why has the Catholic Church ignored this method for so long?  It has been known since the late sixties.  Pope Paul VI wrote me a thank you note when he received an edition of Breastfeeding and Natural Child Spacing in 1971.  John Paul II mentioned this form of natural child spacing in 1994.  As far as I know Pope John Paul II is the only Pope who has mentioned breastfeeding as a form of natural child spacing.  I know some Jewish mothers are trying to convey the message of ecological breastfeeding to women of their faith.  Even women fed up with contraception have shown an interest in this natural form of family planning.

Thanks to all those bishops, priests and lay people who help get the message out.

Sheila Kippley

Ecological Breastfeeding and Exclusive Breastfeeding:  These two types of breastfeeding are often confused with each other, but they are completely different when discussing natural child spacing. Website discussions about pregnancy rates during breastfeeding often confuse these two terms.  Even NFP teachers and doctors have shown confusion regarding these terms.  Let’s get them right.

Exclusive breastfeeding means the mother is giving her baby only her breast milk directly from her breast.  The baby is receiving nothing else for his nourishment.  The exclusive breastfeeding rule (also called the Lactational Amenorrhea Method or LAM) for natural infertility requires 3 conditions:
1) The baby is not yet 6 months old.
2) The mother is exclusively breastfeeding.
3) The mother has not experienced menstruation after the 56th day postpartum.
The pregnancy rate of LAM is 1% to 2% prior to the return of menstruation.

Ecological breastfeeding is described by the Seven Standards:
1. Breastfeed exclusively for the first six months of life; don’t use other liquids and solids, not even water.
2. Pacify or comfort your baby at your breasts.
3. Don’t use bottles and don’t use pacifiers.
4. Sleep with your baby for night feedings.
5. Sleep with your baby for a daily-nap feeding.
6. Nurse frequently day and night, and avoid schedules.
7. Avoid any practice that restricts nursing or separates you from
your baby.

The pregnancy rate for eco-breastfeeding is almost nil during the first 3 months if the mother is doing the Seven Standards and has had no menstrual bleeding after the 56th day postpartum.  With eco-breastfeeding, the second 3 months have a pregnancy rate of about 1% if the mother remains in amenorrhea.  After 6 months, the pregnancy rate is 6% for a mother who does not abstain or continues to rely on breastfeeding.  If the mother needs to postpone a pregnancy, she can switch into charting and use her fertility signs and systematic natural family planning.

For those interested in more information on these two types of breastfeeding, read Chapter 6 in Natural Family Planning: The Complete Approach.  For those interested in natural birth spacing, read The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding: The Frequency Factor.  Today and tomorrow are the last 2 days of the 40% sale at lulu.com.

The Seven Standards book sells for $11.99 but the price is now $7.19.  The ebook is only priced at $5.99 but the sale price is $3.59.  Breastfeeding and Natural Child Spacing sells for $14.95 but the sale price is $8.95.  This ebook is also priced at $5.99 with the sale price at $3.59.  Both books compliment each other and make an excellent gift for a new mother.  The Seven Standards is quite cheap and can be bought in bulk to hand out among friends, relatives, or church members. The NFP manual and Battle-Scarred continue to be on sale also.

Again we encourage mothers who have eco-breastfed to complete the NFPI breastfeeding survey.

Sheila Kippley