Last year the biggest news about breastfeeding was a report on the environmental hazards of manufacturing baby formula and the great benefits of Exclusive Breastfeeding for six months. What will stand out in 2020?
In addition to the treat health benefits of breastfeeding-in-general, there is also the blessing of spacing births with Ecological Breastfeeding. This natural spacing is all part of God’s plan. Yet too many Catholics talk only about systematic natural family planning. Government agencies talk about the need to have a spacing of two years between births, but they say nothing about natural spacing via breastfeeding.
The value of natural spacing with breastfeeding is illustrated by the comments received on January 3 from a grateful mother:
“We practice ecological breastfeeding and spaced our first two 27 months apart with just breastfeeding. I’m in awe of your work and so grateful for all your research and your books. Big fan here. I tell anyone who will listen about your books and the beauty of spacing children God’s way” (my emphasis).
Our two published research papers concluded that American mothers doing Ecological Breastfeeding experience, on average, 14 to 15 months without menstruation after childbirth. I wrote The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding to show the research behind each Standard. Each Standard is a maternal behavior associated with natural spacing.
For couples beginning a family, breastfeeding is an option to consider for the natural spacing of their children, and they should be adequately informed about this as they prepare for marriage.
Sheila Kippley
The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding