Natural Family Planning International

Dr. Otto Schaefer

Through his reading when a young boy of eight living in Germany, Otto Schaefer dreamed of living in the Canadian Arctic.  As a medical doctor his dream was fulfilled.  In a book titled Sunrise Over Pangnirtung (The Arctic Institute of North American, 2000),  Dr. Gerald Hankins tells the fascinating story of this doctor who spent 32 years studying the Eskimos (or Inuit as they liked to be called), recording all his observations in his notebook, and even learning their language.  His research resulted in over 100 publications, and he won many awards and honors toward the end of his life.  He was outspoken about his concerns for the Inuit and about the negative impact the western ways had upon these people and their families.  His favorite topic was breastfeeding.

During his early days in Canada, Dr. Schaefer spoke highly of formula.  “In time, however, he realized he was quite wrong; thereafter, he could not keep quiet.  From his studies and surveys of health and nutrition in infants from many Arctic centers, he had ample evidence to support his views” (Ibid, p. 179).   He observed the bottle-fed baby who “lacks the intimate mother-child bonding and closeness” (Ibid, p. 171).  Schaefer saw another reason for the Inuit to go back to the traditional custom of breastfeeding for three years.  Prolonged breastfeeding “provided an effective type of birth control: the natural contraceptive action of lactation allowed for a desirable spacing of children” (Ibid, p.180).

Dr. Schaefer wrote and spoke frequently about the effect of breastfeeding upon fertility.  In 20 years he saw the Inuit experience a population explosion.  In just ten years the increase in the birth rate went “from less than 40 births per 1000 in the mid-1950s to 64 births per 1000 ten years later” (O. Schaefer, “When the Eskimo Comes to Town,” Nutrition Today, November-December 1971, p. 16).   A 60% jump!  In fact there was a “direct relation to the mileage of the family from the trading posts.  The shorter the distance, the more frequently they had children” (Ibid).  In his opinion:

“There is a clear relationship between the increasing use of bottlefeeding and the shortening of lactation.  This important point is usually overlooked in searches for explanations of the population explosion seen in developing countries (Ibid).”

More on Schaefer’s work next week.

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

Rose Gioiosa wrote me in 1988 reminiscing about her work and promotion of natural child spacing. By then a nun with the Sisters for Christian Community, she recalled her marriage preparation work starting in 1980 in Boston.  She coordinated the program which reached 1,000 couples during the first three years.  The fourth year she restricted the program to 26 churches (Personal letter, August 2, 1988).

There were three sessions with the best time set on Sundays from 2 to 5 PM.  At the first session, a priest talked about Church teaching on marriage as a sacrament, human sexuality and responsible parenthood, and communications and adjustments in marriage.   Natural family planning slides were shown at this time.  The second session was on similar topics but the presenters were married couples.  Interestingly, these presenter-couples had to have experience with natural family planning and natural child spacing by breastfeeding.  The third session was on the spirituality of marriage.  It ended with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the blessing of the engagement rings, and with engagement promises.  Educational booklets and books were offered for sale.  Natural family planning classes followed and couples were encouraged to attend these classes.  Sister Gioiosa’s reflected that there were many different kinds of marriage preparation programs in those days “with not too much input on natural family planning or breastfeeding  and natural child spacing.”(Ibid)   She retired at the end of 1984.

How did she feel about the marriage preparation programs in general when she wrote me back in 1988?   Here is her response:  “I feel that a few sessions on marriage preparation are only a beginning.  Our couples need the backing and good example of their own parents, relatives and other married couples, as well as good follow-up by their own parish churches and clergy, to support them and to continue this ‘beginning.’ ”

Rose Gioiosa was untiring in her promotion of breastfeeding and its effect of natural child spacing.  Thanks to La Leche League, she reached many mothers through her Child & Family article.  She also reached many couples through her marriage preparation work.

Our 6th anniversary for blogging occurs during this week.  We have done almost 400 blogs during those six years.

Next week:  Life of Dr. Otto Schaefer

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

Influential Persons

In preparing this blog, I thought about people who advocated natural child spacing, who published their research, whose work went beyond the medical journals, and who influenced me in the earlier years of my life.  Their work and their message reached the common person. In a sense, their “natural spacing” work became an active apostolate for them.  I want to call special attention to Rose Gioiosa, RN and Otto Schaefer, MD.  These two persons were pioneers with their breastfeeding infertility work.  They were involved with natural child spacing well before I became actively involved with this topic.  Both pioneers are now deceased, and I am grateful for the correspondence I had with both of them.

Rose Gioiosa

In the spring of 1953 Rose Gioiosa conducted a study among breastfeeding mothers at the Catholic Maternity Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Her purpose was to show that a mother could “space her babies naturally without the use of rhythm, basal temperature methods, fertility testor, or other family planning techniques” (“Breastfeeding and Child Spacing,” Child & Family, 1964).  After all, in other countries where prolonged breastfeeding of two or three years was the culture, breastfeeding was valued for the spacing it provided before the conception of another child.

In 1955 Miss Gioiosa’s Santa Fe research was published.  (“Incidence of Pregnancy during Lactation in 500 Cases,” Am. J. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 70:1, July 1955).  She concluded that nine months of breastfeeding is a natural means of spacing babies with an interval of 18 to 24 months, that 95% of American nursing mothers would not conceive during the first nine months postpartum as long as the nursing mother did not offer “additional supplementary or complementary formula” during that time, and that the other 5% of nursing mothers who conceived during the nine months postpartum were weaning or offering “supplementary or complementary feedings” (p. 173).

In 1961, the La Leche League Board sent a survey to its members.  Part of the survey asked questions to determine if breastfeeding spaces babies (Child & Family, 1964).  Rose Gioiosa did a comparison study between the results of the La Leche League survey and her own published study; this resulted in her previously mentioned article (Child & Family, 1964).  This article, “Breastfeeding and Child Spacing,” was published in pamphlet form and distributed widely among La Leche League mothers.  When I was interested in the natural spacing mechanism of breastfeeding, this article found its way into my hands through my La Leche League contacts in the mid-1960s.  In her comparison study, Gioiosa reached the same conclusion:  “The early use of other milks or formulas or solid foods in the infant’s diet automatically decreases the demand on the mother’s milk while she is breastfeeding.  There is a subsequent decrease in the supply of milk available, and this tends to diminish the amount of time afforded by the natural spacing mechanism” (Child & Family, 1964).     Rose Gioiosa’s work in the early Fifties and again in the Sixties with the La Leche League survey is probably one reason why La Leche League stated and continued to state in its manual the following:

“While a mother is wholly breastfeeding (no solids or
supplements), she will most likely not menstruate at all.
In fact, the average nursing mother will not have a period
for about seven to fifteen months after giving birth.  When
she does begin to have menstrual periods, at least one and
often several of these will be without ovulation, or sterile, in
most cases.  Only a fraction of 1% of women are likely to
conceive while wholly breastfeeding before having any
periods” (The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, 1963, p. 49; boldface
not in the original).

Rose Gioiosa’s work on natural child spacing helped to inform mothers that pregnancy could best be postponed by nursing for the first nine months and waiting six months before beginning solid food.  Her work supported the bold-faced statement above.  In those days—the 1960s and early 1970s—there was very little support for natural child spacing except through La Leche League International. The main Child & Family article by Rose Gioiosa bolstered the idea, especially among Catholic mothers, that breastfeeding has something to contribute to the natural spacing of babies.

Gioiosa’s work to be continued next week.

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