Today, August 1, is the beginning of World Breastfeeding Week. My topic each day this week will be devoted to breastfeeding infertility, a subject that is often ignored or misunderstood.
Ample research in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s have shown that breastfeeding infertility is a natural physiological event for the mother after childbirth if she remains with her baby and breastfeeds and comforts her baby at the breast as needed day and night. This kind of breastfeeding is associated with extended breastfeeding infertility. It’s what we call “ecological” breastfeeding or the Seven Standards of eco-breastfeeding. These are the Seven Standards:
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.
Unfortunately, there are some mothers and NFP teachers who discouraged this type of breastfeeding with various false allegations. These allegations follow below with my comment after the quote.
• “One must nurse every 5 minutes.” Simply not so.
• “It is like the rhythm method.” Not at all.
• “It is the ideal.” No, it’s the norm, not an “ideal.”
• “It’s unattainable.” So why have many mothers attained it?
• “It doesn’t work.” Not so.
• “It can’t be used if someone has a serious reason or the need to space.” It’s more effective than non-hormonal birth control in the first six months, and can be used as a natural baby spacer thereafter.
• “You can’t schedule a time to make breakfast for your children.” Really? We did it every day.
• “It’s not enjoyable.” Maybe for some, but most moms love it or they wouldn’t keep doing it for a year or two.
• “Breastfeeding is NOT a form of birth control.” It’s the most natural form of family planning.
The catch-all allegation is this: “You’ll make moms feel guilty or they will think something is wrong with them if eco-breastfeeding doesn’t work for them.”
First, by “work” I assume the objections mean that not everyone will have the average amount of breastfeeding amenorrhea between 14 and 15 months. Of course not. That’s an average. According to the rules or laws of normal distribution, about 2.5% of mothers doing eco-breastfeeding (EBF) might expect a period before 4 months. We have never said that everyone will attain the average.
Second, those who say it does not work have not filled out a breastfeeding survey when requested. Those who used the Seven Standards are invited to fill out our breastfeeding survey given at the end of this blog, regardless of when their periods returned.
Third, I did not breastfeed our first baby according to the Seven Standards, but I never felt guilty about that. Every parent takes advantage of new knowledge and adapts with each child or teenager!
Would we say the same things about systematic NFP? John and I have never said that systematic NFP is the ideal because “ideal” makes it sound too unattainable. We do not stop teaching NFP because one couple does not like NFP or because it is “like the rhythm method” which is an incorrect statement anyway. If someone says “NFP doesn’t work,” we do not stop teaching NFP. Does a couple feel “guilty” because NFP did not work for them? I doubt it. Fertility awareness is based on the physiological signs of a woman’s cycle. Likewise, breastfeeding infertility is based on the physiological signs of a woman’s reproductive cycle, mainly the lack of menstrual periods. Breastfeeding plays a large role in keeping the reproductive system at rest for a lengthy time after childbirth. All couples should be taught this form of natural family planning.
The beauty of fertility awareness or of systematic NFP is that everyone brags how NFP can be used for irregular cycles or can be used during situations such as premenopause or breastfeeding amenorrhea. Yet I have received calls in recent months from breastfeeding mothers upset because they were told by both mucus-only and sympto-thermal instructors that they must wean their babies in order to practice NFP. That was the advice in the Sixties, and I hoped we had gotten away from that advice. Unfortunately, breastfeeding today is seen by many to be the problem when breastfeeding should be seen by those in the Church as the solution. Yes, I said “solution.”
My goal this week is to offer conclusions from research, past and more recent, to prove one point only: Breastfeeding does space babies. Please be open and read my blogs daily on this for World Breastfeeding Week.
Sheila Kippley
The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding: The Frequency Factor