Natural Family Planning International

Before we continue, we need to define three kinds of breastfeeding: cultural, exclusive and ecological breastfeeding. They are all defined by maternal behaviors.

Cultural breastfeeding is also known as token or partial breastfeeding. With cultural breastfeeding, mothers supplement breastfeeding with formula and early baby foods or liquids, use bottles and pacifiers, and may follow strict schedules and try to get the baby to sleep through the night. Mother-baby separation with babysitters is often characteristic of cultural breastfeeding. All of these cultural practices interfere with the natural spacing of children due to the lack of frequent and unrestricted nursing. Cultural nursing almost never delays the return of fertility.

Exclusive breastfeeding was called total or wholly breastfeeding in the 1960s. Exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life is recommended by many medical associations world-wide because this type of breastfeeding offers many benefits to both mother and baby. Exclusive breastfeeding means the mother offers the baby only her milk and only at the breast. Repeated research has shown that exclusive breastfeeding is highly effective in avoiding pregnancy, and now it is called the Lactational Amenorrhea Method. Amenorrhea means the absence of periods. The Lactational Amenorrhea Method has 3 requirements:
1)    The baby must receive only breast milk and directly from the breasts. No other liquid or foods are given.
2)    The baby must be less than 6 months old.
3)    After 56 days postpartum, the mother must be in amenorrhea.
This exclusive breastfeeding method offers the mother at least a 98 to 99 percent rate of infertility before her first menstruation until her baby reaches 6 months of age.  Some research has shown that about 50% of the breastfeeding mothers doing exclusive breastfeeding had their first period return before six months postpartum.  Thus those who promote the Lactational Amenorrhea Method today usually stress two teachings: 1) what is meant by exclusive breastfeeding and 2) the need for frequent nursing day and night. With these emphases, over 80% of mothers were in amenorrhea at 6 months using exclusive breastfeeding.

Ecological breastfeeding is basically natural mothering.  Mother and baby are one, and the mother uses her breasts to satisfy the baby’s hunger and suckling needs. Eventually the baby requires other foods but the nursing continues. This is the only type of breastfeeding associated with an extended amenorrhea after childbirth; it is the only pattern of breastfeeding associated with the natural spacing of births. Ecological breastfeeding is dependent on certain maternal behaviors.  We call these maternal behaviors The Seven Standards.

From July 19th to the evening of August 7th (NFP Awareness Week through World Breastfeeding Week) anyone can purchase the following printed books at a 40% discount at lulu:
Natural Family Planning: The Complete Approach (coil edition preferred for learners)
The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding: The Frequency Factor
Battle-Scarred: Justice Can Be Elusive
Breastfeeding and Natural Child Spacing
An additional 10% discount is offered by lulu through the end of today, August 3rd.  Code when ordering is INTERNET.  Thus anyone ordering a Kippley print book can receive a 50% discount today.

Some background may be helpful. When Sheila was pregnant with our first baby, she attended La Leche League meetings that supported successful breastfeeding and learned that she could space her babies about two years apart beginning with total breastfeeding. Total breastfeeding means no solids or supplements; it means that the baby receives only breast milk from the mother’s breast for the first six months of life. Sheila also was told at these breastfeeding meetings that total breastfeeding was 99% effective in avoiding pregnancy before the return of the first menstrual period during the first six months after childbirth.

However, when she asked her Catholic obstetrician about total breastfeeding for spacing babies, she was told that she would have a period within 3 months no matter how she nursed. He was right. Even though she nursed frequently day and night to maintain an ample milk supply, her periods returned by three months postpartum.

With our second full-term pregnancy, however, Sheila had a different Catholic doctor who told her to nurse exclusively with no supplements, not even water, and to call him when she had her first period. Also, with our second baby God led us to other maternal and parenting behaviors, and Sheila’s nursing pattern became similar to ecological breastfeeding. Following that pattern, she experienced her first period at 12 months postpartum. Why the difference? She was nursing a lot with both babies. Why did her periods return within 3 months after childbirth with one baby and 12 months after childbirth with another baby?

In 1967, Sheila’s interest in the subject led her to begin studying the research on breastfeeding infertility. This research pointed to the frequency of breastfeeding as the key factor for breastfeeding infertility. That research is currently available at the website of NFP International and is titled Review of Breastfeeding Infertility Research up to 1972.

Building on those studies, we then did our own research. We developed a two-page survey that was printed at the end of the first edition of Sheila’s book, Breastfeeding and Natural Child Spacing, and readers were invited to submit it. We were fortunate to publish our results in two journals, one in 1972 and a larger study in 1989. Both studies came to the same conclusion: that American mothers doing ecological breastfeeding experienced, on average, 14.5 months without periods after childbirth. We also found that 93% of the mothers doing eco-breastfeeding were without menstruation at 6 months, 56% were without menstruation at 12 months and 34% were still without menstruation at 18 months. This is why ecological breastfeeding is known to be a natural baby spacer. Both studies are available at the website of NFP International. Three American mothers were not included in the published results because they went a very long time without menstruation, and we did not want to skew the results. These breastfeeding mothers went 41 months, 41 months, and 42 months without menstruation after childbirth. We will soon discuss some cultures where this type of lengthy breastfeeding infertility is not so unusual.

From July 19th to the evening of August 7th (NFP Awareness Week through World Breastfeeding Week) anyone can purchase the following printed books at a 40% discount at lulu:
Natural Family Planning: The Complete Approach (coil edition preferred for learners)
The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding: The Frequency Factor
Battle-Scarred: Justice Can Be Elusive
Breastfeeding and Natural Child Spacing
An additional 10% discount is offered by lulu through the end of August 3rd.  Code when ordering is INTERNET.  Thus anyone ordering a Kippley print book can receive a 50% discount through the end of August 3rd.