Natural Family Planning International

We recently attended the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars convention in Philadelphia, September 29-30.  Fellowship between talks and during the meals is the highlight of this convention.

I was seated next to a man who relayed a story about the problems with teaching in his town. A couple moved to his town where the man had grown up.  The man’s wife did not have to work but chose to teach because she wanted to improve the community where her husband had lived.  After several years of teaching, she quit.  The kids did not listen to her nor did they listen to the new young teachers in their 20s who were eager to teach.  Teaching these children was almost impossible.

I relayed this information to a friend who is well-known in Catholic circles for her writing and teaching.  Her first response was:  “Sheila, you know why don’t you?  It’s daycare.”

I have written what others have said and written in the past about the importance of the mother during the early years and the problems with daycare.  But today this message is silent.  Mothers need to be told how important it is for them to be present to their children.

Of course, God provided this motherly care for the young child during the early years through breastfeeding.  This natural care is consistent, keeps the mother near her child, and provides an excellent foundation for the optimal development of the child.  Later the special care by the father is also important, but during the early years nothing beats the presence of the mother.

Sheila Kippley
The First Three Years

Occasionally I save material on eco-breastfeeding that I want to share with others.  One such file has been gathering dust on the side of my desk, but it contains important information.  I will quote from the two sources.

“Since the dawn of civilization, we have been interfering with breastfeeding.  The rearing of infants on artificial foods has been the largest uncontrolled clinical experiment ever undertaken, and it is still going on, despite the disastrous consequences.  It has brought untold suffering, disease and death to countless millions of babies.  The erosion of breastfeeding’s natural contraceptive effect has been a major factor in bringing about the recent explosive growth of the human population…There is no cheaper or more effective way of improving maternal and infant health and lowering fertility, than the promotion of breastfeedings.  As Hugh Smith said, over 200 years ago, ‘Let me intreat those who are desirous of rearing their children, not to rob them of their natural breast.’ When will we ever learn?” (Nutrition and Population Links: Breastfeeding, Family Planning and Child Health, Chapter 4: “Breastfeeding, Fertility and Population Growth,” 1992)

“The duration of the birth interval, or child spacing, has been shown to have an impact on infant and child mortality.  While family planning programmes have focused on method use and total fertility reduction, only a few programmes in sub-Saharan Africa have targets specifically for spacing and the birth interval.  Nonetheless, even in developing countries with relatively low contraceptive uptake, it is rare to see intervals of less than 2 years.  Today, it is clear that breast-feeding, as a major biological determinant of fertility return postpartum, contributes significantly to this interval…In many countries  the duration of breast-feeding is more important in determining the length of birth intervals than is contraceptive use.” (Estimation of Births Averted due to Breast-feeding and Increases in Levels of Contraception Needed to Substitute for Breast-Feeding,” Journal of Biosocial Science, 2003, 559-574) The paper focused on the birth interval associated with breastfeeding and showed the increase of contraceptive use when breastfeeding declines.

God does have a natural plan for the health of the baby and mother via breastfeeding.  God also had a plan for the natural spacing of births.  Most mothers do not want to have a baby every year or as one mother told me, “I do not want to have 3 babies in diapers.”  Couples also want what is best for their children.  The reported health benefits for both mother and baby are overwhelming.

As an act of social justice, the Church needs to promote ecological breastfeeding because it is so good for families and it is part of God’s divine plan for families.  The Church also needs to encourage couples to be generous in having children, should tell couples that motherhood is a very valuable profession and that during the early years children need their mothers.  Of course, God’s breastfeeding plan also encourages mothers to remain with their little ones.  It’s a natural way for a mother to learn how to care for her baby.  His plan is so good!

Sheila Kippley
Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood (available in paperback and ebook)
The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding: The Frequency Factor  (discount for LLL members; also an ebook)

H. William Taylor was an NFP teacher with his wife, Donna.  They both wanted to promote ecological breastfeeding or natural mothering through research.  Below are quotes taken from Dr. Taylor’s work dealing with breastfeeding amenorrhea.  His work supports the Seven Standards of ecological breastfeeding.

The results [of this study] “indicate that supplementation and scheduling of breastfeeding, as well as episodes of mother/baby separation, all increase the mother’s chance of ovulating after childbirth.”  (“Ovulation Rate after Childbirth: The Effect of Mother-Baby Closeness,” January 2, 1991)

“The analyses indicate that for women who nurse their babies for comparable total amounts of time each 24 hours, those with patterns of short, frequent bouts are less susceptible to early ovulation after childbirth than are those who nurse for longer bouts associated with longer inter-bout intervals…. The behavioural variables of a fixed nursing schedule, the introduction of liquids, nursing interval, frequency, and total daily nursing duration, in contrast, all do significantly affect the hazard of ovulation and, in our population, the length of the post-partum anovulatory interval.”  (Post-partum Anovulation in Nursing Mothers,” Journal of Tropical Pediatrics, December 1991)

“’Mothers following the natural mothering program…bring their baby into bed at night so that nursing can take place there.  A style of nursing develops whereby the mother takes clues from the baby and offers the breast before crying begins.  In bed, rooting and latching onto the breast takes place without either mother or baby fully waking.  The mother who gets up at night to nurse her baby and then puts her back in a crib (which may be in a separate room) may be behaving so as to hasten the return of her ovulatory cycles…..Results..indicate that supplementation and scheduling of breastfeeding, as well as episodes of mother/baby separation, all increase the mother’s chance of ovulating after childbirth.”  (“Human Population Ecology,” 2nd Scientific Conference on Overpopulation, International Population & Family Association, June 10, 1995)

“Stated positively, when babies (1) sleep with the mother, (2) are held close to the mother’s body, and (3) accompany her everywhere, the resulting easy access to the breast may be a causative factor in the ecology of breast-feeding’s contraceptive effect.”  (Continuously Recorded Suckling Behaviour and Its Effect on Lacational Amenorrhoea,”Journal of Biosocial Science, 1999)

“These observations lend credence to the claim that an intermittent pattern of short, frequent sessions is more effective for the continuance of postpartum amenorrhea than a dosed pattern of scheduled, long-interval sessions….The study shows that a style of lactation, which includes specific behaviors, is significantly associated with extended postpartum anovulation and amenorrhea.” (Survival-Time Analysis of the Postpartum Anovulatory Interval as Measured by Rise in Urinary Pregnanediol-3-Glucuronide in Lactating Women,” Proceedings of the 25th Annual International Conference IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, September 17-21, 2003)

In personal correspondence to me, he stated the following:
“When we eliminated mothers who returned to work outside the home, did not let their baby sleep with them at night, introduced solids before six months and nursed less than a median of 9 times a day in the first three months, we ended up with a group that might be said to follow the natural mothering norm.  For these 55 mothers the median wait to their first menses was 15.9 months.” (May 27, 1998)

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