Natural Family Planning International

 No to early solids and liquids
Does breastfeeding space babies?  The answer is “It depends.”  Cultural breastfeeding?  Not really.  Ecological Breastfeeding?   Yes. For mothers who would like the natural spacing of Ecological Breastfeeding, the first step is exclusive breastfeeding.  When a mother provides all of her baby’s nourishment at her breasts and the greater part of her baby’s other sucking needs at her breasts, she will almost invariably experience the side effect of natural infertility. .  That means that if mothers are interested in natural birth spacing, they need to be taught to nurse frequently, nursing during the night and during a short nap, and avoid bottles and pacifiers and mother-baby separation.

Research has shown repeatedly that introduction of early solids and liquids during the early months are associated with an early return of fertility.  This was seen in the previous two blogs.

Witness: “This was the first baby exclusively breastfed for six months and also a baby-led weaning.  The baby nursed very infrequently, but gained three pounds every month for the first six months except one month he gained four pounds.  I am currently nursing our 17 month old without a return of my periods.”

No to pacifiers
Pacifiers are associated with an earlier return of menstruation. (European Journal o9f Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, June 2004).  There are benefits to not using a pacifier: likely avoidance of thumb or finger sucking; better and earlier speech, better dental and facial development, emotional satisfaction from increased contact with the mother, more frequent nursing during the day and night, and longer duration of breastfeeding.

Witness: “My third child had always been a difficult nurser. I nursed him anytime he wanted.  At 16 months we rid him of his pacifier, and nursing became a joy.  From personal experience of nursing both culturally and ecologically, the difference is night and day for both baby and me.  Ecological breastfeeding definitely made me feel closer to my baby.”

No to bottles
It is common today to hear of breastmilk-feeding mothers who only offer breast milk to their baby via pumping and using bottles.  That is, the baby does not receive breast milk directly from the breast.  Interestingly, there is new research which shows that direct breastfeeding is healthier than pumped breast milk given to the baby.  “Indirect breastfeeding was associated with lower overall milk microbiota richness and diversity when compared with direct breastfeeding.” This research group also “found that modes of infant feeding other than direct breastfeeding—including breastfeeding with some pumped breastmilk—were less beneficial than direct breastfeeding in terms of the increased risk of asthma at 3 years of age.” (Cell Host & Microbe, February 13, 2019)  The effects of pumping and suckling are not all the same. Bottles as well as pacifiers interfere with natural infertility.

Tomorrow:  various breastfeeding recommendations for breastfeeding infertility
Sheila Kippley
The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding

In the November/December 1971 issue of Nutrition Today, Dr. Otto Schaefer stated that the Eskimos prolonged lactation provided a natural spacing of three years and kept the Eskimo family small (“When the Eskimo Comes to Town”).  “It is this prolonged lactation period more than high infant mortality that kept the traditional Eskimos family small.”  The traditional Eskimo family size averaged 3 to 4 children.   This natural spacing was lost once the Eskimos were exposed to urbanization and the trading posts.  The closer they lived to the trading posts, the closer they had their babies.  As a result there was a “50 percent jump in the Eskimo birthrate in the Northwest Territories alone, and the increase from less than 40 births per 1000 in the mid-1950s to 64 per 1000 ten years later.”  This increase birth rate was due to the increased use of the bottle and shortened lactation.

In a paper presented at the Circumpolar Health Symposium in Oulu, Finland in June 1971, Dr. Schaefer spoke of the traditional lactation effect on postpartum infertility.  The women aged 30-50 years who had reared children in camp life with prolonged lactation conceived 20-30 months postpartum.  The younger women aged 17-29 who were urbanized and used bottles for their babies conceived “2 to 4 months after the birth of the previous child.”  What a difference! 

The story of Dr. Schaefer’s life was written by Dr. Gerald W. Hankins and was titled Sunrise Over Pangnirtung.  Dr. Hankins mentioned in that book that Dr. Schaefer believed that “breast feeding had a greater influence on the life and health of infants than any other single factor.”  Schaefer also wanted women to give up bottle feeding so they would receive a desirable spacing of children with breastfeeding. 

One interesting note was that Dr. Schaefer did not hear of any complaints from mothers who nursed traditionally.  Not as with the bottlefeeders.  However, when he attended the women’s conference in Pangnirtung in 1981, Dr. Schaefer observed according to Dr. Hawkins that:  “Many complained about having ‘too many kids around,’ one of the consequences of giving up breast feeding.  Others found that they had little to keep them busy and that their children weren’t respectful or obedient any more.”

Dr. Schaefer spent 32 years of his medical career in the barren lands of northern Canada, and his research was written up in over 100 papers and publications. He constantly took notes when providing medical care. I was pleased to meet his daughter at a breastfeeding conference in California.  (She was nursing a three-year old.)

Tomorrow:  early solids, bottles and pacifiers
Sheila Kippley
The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding

Ecological Breastfeeding spaces babies naturally.  No periodic abstinence is required for this form of Natural Family Planning. I first learned about this in 1964 and wanted to learn more.  I was excited to begin my research on natural child spacing in 1966 at the University of San Francisco Medical Center library.  I continued my research in 1968 at the public health department library in Regina, Saskatchewan.  For fun and for this series of blogs, I reviewed all the research I collected up through 1968.  Here are the totals:  1 study in 1895; 2 in the 1930s; 6 in the 1940s; 7 in the 1950s; and 14 from 1960-1968.  All these papers dealt with the effect of lactation upon the reproductive cycle.  These papers dealt with full or mixed breastfeeding, but none of them dealt with the maternal behaviors which we have found are important for natural spacing.  We teach these behaviors with the Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding.  These Standards will be discussed soon in this series of blogs for World Breastfeeding Week.  The published research for each Standard or behavior required for natural spacing is in my book, The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding: The Frequency Factor.  It is a short book, easy to read and costs little.  We give the book free to every couple who attends our local NFP classes in Cincinnati.

The daily blogs for this World Breastfeeding Week will focus on the research showing that a long absence from menstruation can occur for certain breastfeeding mothers.  Why?  Because a certain type of breastfeeding continues to keep the reproductive system at rest.

Because this information has been made available since 1969 through our books and our NFP apostolates, we are amazed that this information is ignored by most of those in the Natural Family Planning movement as well as by the Church and the government. 

In 1983, Daniel T. Halperin covered this topic for his master’s thesis:  “Infant Feeding in Honduras:  Mixed Feeding, Child Spacing and some Policy Implications.”  He was a strong promoter of natural birth spacing through breastfeeding.  He was exposed to parents and health workers in Honduras who laughed at the idea that breastfeeding could space babies.  “Neither of three family planning officials with whom I spoke believed that lactation had significant influence on fertility.”  Yet the women in Honduras said they would prefer “two years or more” spacing.  This culture, however, favored bottles, pacifiers, early solids, and practices which cause fertility to return early.  Most parents were Catholic and feared “the widely-reported physical dangers associated with birth-control pills, IUDs, injections, etc.”

Mr. Halperin stated that while technological contraceptive devices work “against God’s will,” lactation and its child spacing effect are forms of the natural carrying-out “of His will.”

Tomorrow.  Today we saw a Honduran culture where natural child spacing via breastfeeding was uncommon.  Tomorrow we will see a culture where traditional breastfeeding does indeed space babies.
Sheila Kippley
The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding