Natural Family Planning International

From mothers this year (2018):

“I relied only on breastfeeding during amenorrhea and then encouraged night weaning for a return of fertility.  I became “pregnant at 23 months with no return of menses.”  I am still nursing baby at 24 months, baby’s current age.”

“My son is still nursing at 35 months with no end in sight.  Thanks be to God.  My first postpartum period returned at 25 months.”

“I night weaned my second baby at 13 months to encourage a return of fertility to conceive again.  My first postpartum period returned at 14 months.  I did not know about ecological breastfeeding with my first baby or I would have done it!”

“I had my first postpartum period return at 14 months and conceived at 18 months intentionally.  I am still nursing baby #3 who is 20 months old.”

” I had lactation amenorrhea of 30 and 37 months with my 2nd and my 3rd daughters; in both cases my menstruation returned while I was still breastfeeding.”

“My first postpartum period has not returned yet.  I am still nursing my baby (now 13 months) with no signs of fertility.  Thank you for teaching about ecological breastfeeding.  It has brought me so much peace and joy.”

Sheila Kippley
The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding: The Frequency Factor

From St. John Paul II:
“Greater consideration should be given to the social role of mothers, and support should be given to programs which aim at decreasing maternal mortality, providing prenatal and perinatal care, meeting the nutritional needs of pregnant women and nursing mothers, and helping mothers themselves to provide preventive health care for their infants. In this regard attention should be given to the positive benefits of breastfeeding for nourishment and disease prevention in infants as well as for maternal bonding and birth spacing.” [John Paul II, Address to Dr. Nafis Sadk, Secretary General of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, March 18, 1994, n. 8. Emphasis added.]

From Alfonso Cardinal López Trujillo, President of the Pontifical Council for the Family:
“For many years the value of breastfeeding has been recognized especially in terms of the close bond it establishes between a mother and her child and the health benefits of a natural form of nourishing infants. It is therefore heartening to see a revived interest in this natural form of nurturing. However, there is another dimension of breastfeeding that is not as widely known, that is, choosing breastfeeding as a natural means for spacing births.
Used in this way, breastfeeding has been found to be of particular value, not only in various traditional cultures, where such an approach has been known for centuries, but in the wider world. As one of the natural ways for regulating fertility, breastfeeding thus takes its place among various methods that constitute the ‘authentic alternative’ to contraception, and so it remains a subject for research and study.” (Foreword, Breastfeeding and Natural Child Spacing: The Ecology of Natural Mothering, Classic Edition, 2008. Emphasis added.)

Sheila Kippley
The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding: The Frequency Factor

The daily blogs during World Breastfeeding Week will promote the natural spacing of births using the kind of breastfeeding called Ecological Breastfeeding.  This involves maternal behaviors associated with extended breastfeeding amenorrhea and related infertility.  Amenorrhea means the absence of menstruation. We call these behaviors the Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding which are listed below.

1. Breastfeed exclusively for the first six months of life; don’t offer your baby 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.

To go 1 or 2 years without menstruation while ecologically breastfeeding is normal for a breastfeeding mother.  To experience even 3 years of breastfeeding amenorrhea is very unusual but still normal for some mothers.  To have her periods return during the first six months  if she is truly doing eco-breastfeeding would also be quite unusual but still within the range of normal for some mothers.

Sheila Kippley
The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding: The Frequency Factor