Natural Family Planning International

The more complete question is this:  When breastfeeding is discussed in a course on Natural Family Planning, is it necessary to emphasize the Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding?

The answer has to be “Yes!”  When breastfeeding is discussed in an NFP course, the teachers will either say that breastfeeding can delay the return of fertility, or the students will infer that breastfeeding can delay fertility simply because it’s being mentioned in an NFP course.  After all, why would breastfeeding be discussed in an NFP course unless it was somehow related to fertility or infertility and natural family planning?

The problem is this:  The only form of breastfeeding that provides a significant delay in the return of fertility is Ecological Breastfeeding according to the Seven Standards.  Talking about “breastfeeding in general” means that the students will “hear” that cultural breastfeeding spaces babies, and almost every woman who tries it will experience disappointment when her periods start at two or three months postpartum.  Such disappointment will predispose them to be skeptical also about the efficacy of systematic NFP.  That’s why “breastfeeding in general” should never be advocated for breastfeeding infertility in an NFP course.  Most uninformed nursing mothers will do cultural breastfeeding, and this type of baby care simply does NOT work as a natural form of spacing babies. 

What about “exclusive breastfeeding”?  “Exclusive breastfeeding” is a form of NFP generally known as LAM (the Lactational Amenorrhea Method).  Its focus is on what is fed and what is not fed to the baby.  That is, it focuses on the mother nursing her baby at her breast for six months before she introduces any other form of nourishment, even water.  However, it does not specify the frequency of nursing that is part of the Seven Standards.  “Exclusive breastfeeding” is an important part of the Seven Standards, but it is just Number One of the Seven, and it lasts for only six months.  Because of the lack of frequency, about 44% of mothers doing only Exclusive Breastfeeding have their periods return before six months postpartum.  That is, only 56% of LAM mothers are still in amenorrhea at six months.  In contrast, in our study, 93% of ecological breastfeeding mothers were in amenorrhea at six months, 56% were without menstruation at 12 months and 34% were still without menstruation at 18 months. 

A natural family planning course is not the same as a course on anatomy or health.  By its very nature, an NFP course has to do with understanding fertility and learning natural ways to achieve and postpone pregnancy.  To teach breastfeeding in this context means that the students will expect to learn about the form of breastfeeding that will act as a natural baby spacer.  Breastfeeding according to the norms of the Seven Standards is the only research-demonstrated way to achieve significant baby-spacing effects.  The science has been done.  Therefore, it only makes sense to confine NFP-breastfeeding education to the Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding.  These Standards can be taught in about seven minutes. 

Caution needs to be exercised.  Our studies have found that mothers who breastfeed according to the Seven Standards experience an average of 14 to 15 months of breastfeeding amenorrhea.  This is not Lake Wobegon where all the children are above average.  An average is an average of all the respondents, some less than 14 months and some more than 15 months.  Seventy percent had their first periods between nine and 20 months.  It needs to be taught that not everyone will experience 14 to 15 months of amenorrhea, and it also needs to be said that there is nothing “wrong” with having an earlier period or having a later one.  That’s just the way that nature works. 

Engaged couples have a right to be taught all the NFP options including ecological breastfeeding.  They also have a right to be disappointed and feel cheated if their NFP instructor omits this integral part of natural family planning.  The bottom line is that NFP courses should teach the Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding—and only the Seven Standards.  Anything less is a disfavor to the students and sets them up for disappointment. 

John F. Kippley
Sex and the Marriage Covenant
Natural Family Planning: The Complete Approach

I had my baby!  It’s a boy!  It was a wonderful birth, at home, with my fabulous midwife.  I have never used any birth control of any kind.  I naturally got a break between children of 16 1/2 months, then 2 years and 9 months, then again 2 years and 9 months, and then 3 years.
 
I do chart, only because I find the information very helpful (and fascinating!).  My midwife has always been very respectful of my charting, lifestyle, etc., and she’s always set my due dates based on my charts.
 
ON DUE DATE: With this most recent baby, I would have been officially two weeks overdue, if we had simply calculated on when my last period was, which as you know, can be sharply inaccurate if you were nursing a baby during that cycle…..  I imagine that without my due date based on my precious chart, there would have been all this anxiety, stress tests…Perhaps I would have been sliced and diced at a C-section 🙁  The whole time I was “overdue”, I was measuring up perfectly based on my chart due date, and was only three days late.
 
ON EARLY CRAMPING: I just wanted to confirm that I am recalling correctly that you wrote somewhere that with one of your children, you were feeling cramps, and some extra focused effort to increase nursings made the cramps go away??
 
My baby is only 3 months old, and, while I am certainly nursing on demand, and napping, too, I am up late at night with a lot to do, and I suspect that the late nights are bringing on this cramping.  I am hoping you can give me some reassurance that with more effort to get to bed earlier, and to offer the breast more, the cramps will dissipate?

SHEILA: You have a good memory.  Yes, I would encourage you to get more rest, plus that daily nap/rest which you’re doing, and nurse while doing so.  Actually, with adequate rest you can usually get more done sometimes.
 

CORRESPONDENT  ON THE IMPORTANCE OF NAPS: I have a good memory only because I’ve read your writings so many times, every time I have a baby!!  The daily nap is probably really instrumental in delaying fertility return because not only do I feel rested, but I find the baby always nurses a tremendous amount, oftentimes still suckling at the end of a one hour nap!

Sheila Kippley
For more on naps, read Chapter Five in The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding.

“I would like to express my extreme admiration and gratitude for your work (and your husband’s).  I read about ecological breastfeeding a few years ago, at the recommendation of a friend, shortly after my second child was born (I have four now).  At the time I thought it was very intersting and informative, but only gradually has it really sunk in just how important this is.  I have noticed in my own experience, and also in watching others, how the breastfeeding relationship affects everything about the family, for good or ill.  It is the beginning of everything, on the natural level, and the importance of that good beginning cannot be overemphasized.  As I have become more informed myself and have noticed what others have to say on this topic, I am really amazed and saddened that so few people seem to understand the truths that you set forth so well.  Even among Catholics who are really intending to live out the Church’s teachings, there seem to be huge misunderstandings about the true teaching of Humanae Vitae, as well as vast lack of understanding about what nature teaches us.  I have not yet had a chance to read your new book but I am looking forward to doing so.
       My own little testimony about ecological breastfeeding:  When I read your book I was mostly following the guidelines you set out, with the exception of not having been careful not to leave my children for any real length of time.  I didn’t have babysitters, but I did leave each of my first two children with their grandmother for the greater part of a day, and both times, my cycle returned the next month.  For the first baby, it was 14 months postpartum when my cycle returned; for the second, it was 19 months postpartum.  Both times I became very uncomfortably engorged.  With my third, I simply did not consider leaving her for a long period to be an option for me until she was about three.  With her, my cycle did not return until 22 months postpartum!  My fourth child is months old and it will be interesting to see if she follows the same pattern as my third.  I was 25 at the birth of my first child and am now 34.  My children are spaced 2.5 to 3 years apart.  I have not needed to use any other method of NFP in spacing my children.” 

—A mother who would identify herself as an ordinary mom. 

For more information and instruction on breastfeeding and natural child spacing, read The Seven standards of Ecological Breastfeeding: The Frequency Factor.

Sheila Kippley