Natural Family Planning International

The Specifics of Natural Child Spacing

My contribution to the promotion of breastfeeding and natural child spacing has been the teaching that there is more to natural child spacing than exclusive breastfeeding, that mothering practices make a significant difference in prolonging natural infertility.  

Exclusive breastfeeding is insufficient by itself to maintain amenorrhea.  There are many mothers who experience an early return of menstruation while exclusively breastfeeding.  I learned this while listening to mothers at La Leche League meetings for a dozen years.  Studies on the Lactational Amenorrhea Method also prove that about 50% of the mothers have an early return of menstruation while exclusively breastfeeding.   If “fully” breastfeeding is well defined and frequent nursing day and night is stressed, only 18% of the LAM users have a return 0f menstruation by 6 months. (Labbok, NFP conference, 2010)

In the early 1970s, I emphasized not only the concept that you need to do more than exclusively breastfeed to space babies naturally but also that you need to remain  with your baby, that mother-baby togetherness is the key to natural child spacing.  

In the first and second editions of Breastfeeding and Natural Child Spacing (self-published; Harper & Row), I inserted a questionnaire at the back of the book for mothers to fill in and return after they had completed their breastfeeding experience.  The survey dealt with detailed questions about their mothering practices, their use of any form of natural family planning or birth control, and the return of their first bleeding, spotting, or period.  This collection of surveys eventually led to published research.

In our original research John and I focused on six practices in our survey-questionnaire.  These practices later evolved into the Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding.  The Seven Standards are basically maternal behaviors associated with natural postpartum infertility.  We called this type of breastfeeding “ecological breastfeeding” to show that it involved a special mother-baby relationship.  We also called this form of baby care “natural mothering.”

John and I isolated each Standard to see if any one standard had more of an impact on maintaining infertility than any of the others.  What our research showed was that each Standard was important in maintaining breastfeeding infertility and that no Standard was sufficient by itself.  It was for this reason that I often used the example of a “breastfeeding infertility” pie when giving talks.  The pie is made up of seven pieces.  Each piece is important.  A mother interested in breastfeeding infertility needs more than just one piece of the pie and definitely more than just exclusive breastfeeding.  She needs all seven parts or standards.

To be continued next week

Sheila Kippley
Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood
The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding

Research for review

God’s Plan for Me continued

A third factor in my change of mothering practices was a new Catholic obstetrician with our second baby.  He was faithful to Church teaching and encouraged the use of the thermometer for family planning.  He did not recommend the thermometer to me, however, because he knew I wanted to breastfeed.  He told me to breastfeed exclusively and to call him when I had my first period.  It was July and hot at the time.  I remember asking him if I could give the baby water.  His response was that my milk was adequate for the baby.  He stressed that I was not to give the baby water or anything else.

His advice was so different from that of my first Catholic obstetrician who told me I would have a period within three months after childbirth no matter how I nursed my baby.  I thought this first doctor was correct because I did have a period within three months after childbirth with my first baby.  At the time I did not realize that this doctor was not properly informed.  For several reasons I had to search for another Catholic obstetrician with the birth of our second child.  I am very grateful for his “exclusive breastfeeding” advice.

Fourth, while I nursed our first baby frequently, I used an occasional bottle.  Exclusive breastfeeding our second baby brought changes.  I never used a bottle for her or our other children.  In addition, my mothering lifestyle changed.  I went from mother/baby separation to mother/baby togetherness.  If I had to be somewhere, I picked up our baby and went.  We also went from the lifestyle of using babysitters for our first baby to never using a babysitter for our other babies.  When we began our family, my husband believed it was best to expose the baby to many babysitters.  He too changed and felt baby was best with mother.  In America you are unusual when you adopt a lifestyle of mother-baby togetherness.  This major change in my mothering, taking the baby with me, was completely new to me; I knew no one else who did this.  But it was a necessary step toward breastfeeding infertility.  In addition, when you are that close to your baby, you do not want to leave the baby in the care of others.  Your attitude changes.

With our first baby, my periods returned within three months after childbirth.  I had attended La Leche League meetings every month and knew I should breastfeed often day and night—which I did.  Yet menstruation returned early.

With our second baby my first period didn’t return until she was a year old.  Why the difference?  I attended La Leche League meetings while nursing my first baby and then later while nursing my second baby.  At those meetings you learn to nurse your baby often day and night in order to have an ample supply of milk.  The main difference was that I had changed how I cared for our baby.  With exclusive breastfeeding and baby-skin irritation from a pacifier, I quit using bottles and pacifiers.  Taking the baby with me whenever I left the house also allowed for more nursing if needed.  In addition, co-sharing sleep allowed for frequent and unrestricted nursing all during the night as needed.  The main benefit for me was that nursing was one thing I could do in my sleep and I was well rested in the morning.

To be continued next week

Sheila Kippley
Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood
The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding

Why did my mothering practices change?

While my research began in the medical library, the real “research” began in our home.  I am convinced that God had a hand in the weird events that developed about a year before my research began.  He was teaching me there was another way to take care of our second baby.  Of course, I did not see it that way at the time.  I don’t remember the order of these events, but will mention four major events that occurred early after childbirth with our second baby that changed my, and later John’s, views about parenting.

First, I was very much a part of our culture.  I was adamantly opposed to sleeping with the baby.  Our first baby had a crib in a separate room.  I remember becoming very upset when I came home and found my sister and our first baby, now older, sleeping together on the top of our bed.  My La Leche League leader encouraged me to sleep with both my babies as I am sure I often complained to her about how tired I was after each birth.  I refused to follow her advice.  I thought sleeping with a baby was very dangerous.

One afternoon I was nursing our second daughter before placing her in the crib.  I awoke three hours later to find our daughter still at the breast.  I was so exhausted I had fallen asleep on the top of our bed.  What surprised me was how rested I felt and our baby was safe!  That afternoon was the beginning of a different kind of parenting for us.  For me sleeping with the baby allowed the baby to nurse at will and it gave me the rest I needed.

Co-sharing sleep is an advantage when breastfeeding.  People who are opposed to having baby in bed with the parents don’t realize the dangers of nursing a baby during the night in a chair.  Oftentimes the mother falls asleep and awakes scared because she almost dropped the baby.  This had happened to me.  Sitting up also restricts the nursing due to the mother’s fatigue.  It did for me.  I was tired and tried to get the sleeping baby off the breast as soon as possible so I could get back to bed myself.  Or the room was cold and I was anxious to get back into a warm bed.  There is a big difference in the amount of suckling occurring at the breast when the mother sits up at night to nurse as opposed to nursing the baby in bed.  In addition, more babies die in their own cribs.  A SIDS death is almost unheard of if the situation is normal and proper precautions are taken.  By normal situation, I mean the baby is with the mother and not the boyfriend or some other person, and the mother is not a smoker and is not drugged or morbidly obese or incapacitated in some way. (NFPI offers information on safe bed-sharing at “links.”)

Second, in the early Sixties the University of California dental faculty at San Francisco recommended only one brand of pacifier for good oral health.   This pacifier, however, caused a rash around our second baby’s mouth, so I discarded it.  With our first baby we used a pacifier constantly.   We did not use a pacifier with our last four children.  It’s unfortunate today that most parents believe that their baby needs a pacifier.  What babies really need is that extra suckling from their mother’s breast.

To be continued next week.

Sheila Kippley
Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood
The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding